Who's a Pokemon Master?
by Porthos112
Summary: Ranma, Pokemon, nuff said. No, well I have a different take on Pokemon, they're not as innocent as the originals. Ranma arrives in Pokeworld equipped with an advanced Pokedex that has a smart mouth. Meshes eventually with Ash's journey, off and on.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer)- It is with great pride that the author of this work notes that no Pokemon were harmed in the making of this Fanfic. Trainers on the other hand should consider themselves to be mobile punchlines. Both the titles Pokemon and Ranma half are owned by their respective owners, duh! If I claimed to own them then my name would be on them somewhere, as that would be a great way to go down in history, well maybe not so much as the creator of Pokemon, but I'd be rich. I tell you so who cares?

Authors Note)- I'm not one to blow my own trumpet but TOOT! No seriously, I liked writing this story. I've seen some really good crossovers of these two stories and hoped to write something that lived up to the way they made me feel. The first kind of made me sad, but only because it hasn't been updated in so long that I think the author has given up on it. That one is called 'Fist of the Pikachu' and I highly recommend it. The other one seems to still be in progress which makes me HAPPY!!! That one is called 'Unnamed master', that one I can't wait to see the next update on, especially that crazyhead Vulpix. Oh by the way I recommend that one as well.

I'm still working on chap 13 of 'Phoenix Ascension' and as I post this it's about 80 percent written and 0 percent proof read. Taking longer to make a certain character change than I thought, plus the fact that I wrote this chapter and seven thousand words of the next chapter. Will it be the last chapter you decide.

Is what I wrote good, well that I don't know, but I can hope so. What I really wanted to achieve was something original, or at least mostly so. I'll let you guys out there judge whether it is or not, though I've never seen anyone use my method of travel before in a Ranma Fanfiction. I'd like to write at least a chapter of this a month, but 'Phoenix Ascension' is my priority. Though I'd have to say any reviews I receive for this story could sway me to work a little harder, there's nothing quite like knowing someone appreciates what you're writing to give a writer motivation. So as normal forward any comments or criticism constructive or otherwise in a review. If you're going to flame me, send it in a private e-mail, flames tend to ruin the tone of this site as they're usually ugly and uncalled for.

Who's a Pokemon Master?

(Title sucks? Suggest one to me then, the other option was 'So you wanna be a Grand-master?', I am open to others.)

Chapter 1

Ryoga Hibiki trudged through the streets of an unknown city, there wasn't any reason for him to expend the energy required to find out what city this one happened to be as his sense of direction would only let him down again within minutes of finding that fact out. As for directions to the places he wanted to go, well it was best not to talk to him about that, not unless you wanted a well placed Shi Shi Hokoudan with your name on it.

He'd been a wanderer for nearly half his life now. When one place looked very much like another there was no point worrying about where you were. Then again there were times when he'd like to be able to get to certain places. Such as the Tendo dojo in Japan, that'd be really nice. He smiled an evil smile as he thought of pounding a certain pig-tailed martial artist into the ground. Not that he'd been able to the last time they'd clashed. Nor the time before that, in fact there was only one battle that he could recall that the winner was in doubt, and that was the time he'd learned the Shi Shi Hokoudan heh, that time he'd pounded Ranma real good. Not even the Bakusai Tenketsu training had done him any good as that a-hole had just used speed against him, and though Ranma didn't seem to have the power to beat him, he proved once again that he was better than Ryoga by using speed and precision to attack a single point on his newly armoured body. Since then Ryoga had found yet another fatal flaw in the technique as he'd been taught, it seemed that since all of the boulders had struck him in the front. Well he found out the hard way that his rear received no real benefits from the skill and was in fact still as soft as before the training. The Old Ghoul had a great deal to answer for, it's just lucky Ranma never figured it out or their fights would be even shorter than they usually were.

Looking around he got a vague impression that he knew where he was, it was only vague but it was enough to convince him to bellow out his calling card. If any one in the area knew him they'd come looking for him, it was much faster that way.

"Where the hell am I now!!?" Looking around he saw a flash of purple out of the corner of his eye and turned to watch Xian Pu ride past on the bike the locals had dubbed 'The bike of death' or doom depending on who you asked.

"Xian Pu! Wait up! I want to talk to your grand-mother." He hoped she'd stop and talk to him, maybe lead him somewhere like the Tendo's or to see the Old Ghoul but she either didn't hear him or didn't want to speak to him as she kept going. That meant he'd have to use Plan B, as long as he kept her in sight he knew he'd be able to follow her and started to run after the speedy bike rider.

-Meanwhile-

Ranma couldn't believe how dull the last few weeks had been, no attackers, challengers or even new fiancées (not that he really needed or wanted anymore of those). It was just that he really needed those things to happen as they kept him battle honed and ready for anything. Some might think he was a bit of an adrenaline junky and they wouldn't be far from the truth, not that he thought of himself that way. He just knew that bad things happen when you least expect them and they usually happened to him.

"Where the hell am I now!!?" Ranma perked right up at hearing those words.

"Well wha'd'ya know, speak of the devil and the devil appears."

"Huh?" Akane turned away from the teacher at the front of the class to look at Ranma.

"I'll see'ya latter 'Kane, I'm just gonna see P-chan."

"P-chan! Where?" She began looking under the desks and out the window frantically as she hadn't seen her pet in a few weeks.

"Alright Akane you keep lookin' for P-chan and I'll go talk to Ryoga." He was half way to the window when he dodged the swipe to the back of his head from his un-cute fiancée. Ranma barely noticed her as he jumped to the window sill and prepared to launch out the third story window.

"Don't you pick on Ryoga either, baka!" She knew it was a lost cause as Ranma was gone from the window before she had time to re-orient herself from the missed swing and turned back to face him, but it was always worth a try.

Ranma had been getting really good at being able to locate the lost boy just from the sound of his voice. Heading towards where he thought the noise came from he hit the outer wall of the school at speed and used it to catapult himself into the sky. At forty feet and rising he managed to spot a flash of yellow and black that looked like Ryoga, but it was too far away to really be able to tell. So he flipped around and used his newly acquired Mouko Takabisha to propel himself in the direction he needed to go. Unfortunately he didn't yet have it fine tuned, sure he went in the right direction, roughly, but there was no time for fine control of his flight path. He clipped the edge of a nearby roof and flipped end for end doing a faceplant into the tiles as he traveled down to the gutter and slid off into the street, if he wasn't as stunned as he was he might have been able to right himself and land on his feet but some days things just don't go as they should. He crashed into the street flat on his back, this of course didn't even raise the least amount of interest in the passersby, they even stepped over him as he watched his target running down the street, chasing….Xian Pu!

"What's the idiot doin' chasin' her?" Flipping to his feet he gave high speed chase, which was lucky as his quarry was nearing a corner, if he turned much before Ranma got there it could be a lost(no pun) cause trying to find him again. Heading for the roofs again he planned to cut the bandanna clad boy off, roof hopping he managed to keep Ryoga in plain sight and there went Xian Pu.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Xian Pu was having a strange day, it wasn't every day that the lost boy followed her around, he was even chasing her. Why was the question that kept running through her head? She'd only managed to come to one conclusion so far, and that was that she really didn't want to find out. He could want payback for the faulty technique her grandmother had taught him, and if that was the case there wasn't much she could do to stop him. Sure she was the pre-eminent warrior of her tribe, but as she'd learned since coming out into the real world she was a big fish in a small pond. Some of the martial artists out here were big fish in a very big pond, it was scary at times. First things being first she had to escape him, but he was being unusually persistent, Ryoga would normally be lost by now. 'Time for drastic measures.' The bike continued on her path as she vaulted right and smashed through the door to an apartment complex, running down the corridor she went up the stairs, 'There, the stupid pig should be well and truly lost by now.'

She was right in one sense, but didn't account for the general chaos factor in Nerima.

Ryoga watched the purple haired harridan enter the building just ahead and followed her, having lost sight of her he resorted to standard Hibiki operating procedure which is to move in a straight line. Punching through the door directly ahead he entered what to a normal person would have been a strange room, the walls were made of some opaque white material that could have been plastic but it was kind of doubtful. There was light coming from all directions. It was lucky for the owner that he had automatic sliding doors within his home though as Ryoga didn't' slow down, he charged through the open door and turned right at the console in the centre of the room. Having an Hibiki charge through his control room barely even caused the sole occupant of the room to raise an eyebrow. The doctor was however startled by the young man following directly after him.

"Now just who in the blue blazes are you!"

"Uh, the names Ranma Saotome, sorry about this. Could you tell me where Ryoga Hibiki went? He's six feet tall and built like a tank, he was wearing a mustard yellow top and black trousers, oh yeah an he's got a yellow bandanna round his neck."

"Well some one of that description went through that door there," He pointed to a door off to the side, "but I doubt he's still in there." Even though the tall gaijin was in a climate controlled room he had on a long scarf which he kept playing with, finally noticing his nervous habit he flipped it over a shoulder and left it alone.

"Why's that?"

"Well if he was still in there I'm pretty sure my assistant would be screaming her head off like she did the last time an Hibiki invaded the ship. Then we'd probably have to find cover as she opened up with that semi-automatic plasma launcher we got at Geidi Prime. I've tried to lose it, oh how I've tried, but she always seems to find it again."

"Happens often does it?" Ranma had a great deal of sympathy for the man, he knew what it could be like dealing with women of a temperamental nature, not that he put it in so many words. Ranma's version contained the word Gorilla on three separate occasions and went down hill from there.

"You might say that. Anytime I'm within two parsecs and\or five temporal sectors of Earth I'm likely to be invaded by Hibiki's. Other ship captains have to deal with rats or feaisoth but me, I have Hibiki's. Why me?"

"So, like I was following Ryoga an' I've lost track of him. Could you tell me where the hell I am?"

"You sure you're not an Hibiki? That sounded an awful lot like their usual cry."

"Yeah well, as they say when in Rome." Ranma shrugged eloquently.

"Do as the Romans do? Yes I can see how that works. To answer your question we're a long way away from where you want to be. To be honest with you I have a slight problem myself at the moment, the dimensional stabilizer on board has taken some damage that I can't fix so I'm randomly flipping through alternate universes. I'm hoping we'll still be able to reach my home base and make repairs as I'm on a very tight schedule, but it's looking less and less of a possibility at the moment. This leaves me in a bit of a quandary as to what I should do with you. I'd like to return you to whence you came but I don't think I can, yet."

"I wanna go back to where I come from. Please." Ranma cracked his knuckles as he prepared to give the tall man with the fuzzy hair in front of him a descent smack down. Fortunately the door that had been pointed out earlier opened and distracted the two men in the room.

-Back on Earth-

Amano Saeki slouched a little in his chair but otherwise didn't react when someone kicked his door in and slammed it shut behind them, he just turned to watch the purple haired member of the Nerima Wrecking Crew bolt across the room to stop in front of him.

"Xian Pu sorry bout door, send bill Nekohanten. Which way other exit?" The old man mutely motioned to the door on the far side of the room, it wasn't technically an exit but a window, but when dealing with the NWC it was amazing what worked as a door, not even walls were sacrosanct when an Amazon wanted out. Far better to humour her than have to pay for repairs to an external wall. He watched as she turned and moved towards the door he'd pointed out to her, then much to his surprise and apparently the woman's as well the closet door opened and out ran another member of the NWC.

"I think I'd be running as well." Amano muttered to himself. Ryoga the wandering martial artist as the kinder residents of Nerima called him wasn't the brightest of sparks but he was certainly powerful. Second only to the Wild Horse Ranma who also lived in the area. He had to wince though as rushing female crashed into the oblivious male. And as is often the case in a world based on physics his larger mass was hardly affected by her slight body, he tripped and fell flat on his back as he tried to recover but was met by a rapidly descending Amazon.

Xian Pu let out a yell of surprise as she crashed into a solid wall that wasn't supposed to be there, she was travelling so fast at the time that she flattened herself against the ceiling like a pancake, with her change in direction, then as is inevitable gravity took over and she started the return journey to the floor roughly eight feet below. It wouldn't be enough time for the agile martial artist to regain her feet but at least she'd land semi upright, just a little harder than she expected as the floor seemed to be closer than she thought.

Amano winced as the Amazon landed knees first on the Lost boys shoulders, a move that should have broken both his collarbones barely caused the massively built teen to grunt. The move left the young woman straddling his face. The girls' hands slipped from their purchase at the waist of Ryoga and she smashed face first into his groin, which caused more than a little grunt from Ryoga, his eyes bugged out as the only place unaffected by the Bakusai Tenketsu received some ungentle attention from the supposedly gentler sex. He looked up through the tears in his eyes to find out what the hell was going on when he met the most unexpected sight of his life. His nose blew a major gasket and he passed out while muttering something to himself. This was one place where the science of physics couldn't help him, this is where her slight body could effect him physically.

Xian Pu heard the thud from behind her and someone muttering something about 'carpets and drapes', so she looked to see what was happening now, that was when she realized her position relative to that of Ryoga was very open to misinterpretation, in fact it was the kind of position she hoped to find herself in relation to Airen. Then the thought of her husband caused just one more thought to catch up with her before she vaulted off his chest and landed panting a few feet away with her legs clamped together and pulling down the hem of her dress.

"That last time Xian Pu try surprise Airen that way." Or maybe not as she remembered the impact it had had on Ryoga. She glowered at the cursed boy for his part in ruining her surprise for Ranma. Picking up one of his feet she began to drag the comatose but smiling teenager from the room.

She looked over to the couch and addressed the elderly man sitting there, he maybe a male but her grand-mother had taught her that great age no matter the form was deserving of respect, she'd refrained from bringing up Happosai to check where her elder relative stood on that particular elder though.

"Xian Pu sorry about this." She waved around the room as she ran out of words to describe everything that had happened in the thirty or so seconds she'd been in his apartment, before dragging Ryoga away again. She grunted as she heard a slight thud and her burden suddenly got heavier, looking back she found that Ryoga was awake again. His eyes bulging 'again' as the leg she didn't have hold of slipped to the far side of a table leg with the inevitable meeting of his groin with a hard object, yet again.

"What pig-boy glare at me like that for? You no think Xian Pu going kiss it better for you?" Then blushed profusely as she thought through what she'd just said. That was alright because the implication had just smashed Ryoga's higher brain function into smithereens and he passed out again, this time in major danger of haemorrhaging to death. She reached down and grabbed both his hands to drag him the rest of the way out of the apartment this time leaving the table where it belonged.

Amano Saeki considered his idea to retire to the ward of Nerima, and smiled. Juuban was interesting in its own way, but he'd lived there all his life. Now Nerima on the other hand was entertaining, in fact you couldn't buy entertainment of this quality. He chuckled as he followed the pair out onto the landing where Xian Pu was about to push Ryoga down the stairs as the easiest way to get the man out of the building. I mean, after the Bakusai Tenketsu training a small uncontrolled fall down some stairs wouldn't faze him at all, it wouldn't even leave bruises. Xian Pu looked up again as she ignored the thuds of a human tank crashing into the bottom of the stairwell.

"Xian Pu so so sorry, you come Nekohanten tonight get too good meal, yes? Xian Pu really need go now." She flashed him a warm smile that even reached her eyes before turning and bounding down the stairs where she landed with a crunch on top of Ryoga and a muffled "Aiyah! Lost boy not lost yet?"

Amano shook his head again before propping up the remains of his door in its frame and returning to his couch. Now all he had to do was figure out how he'd explain to his councilor at the RDHA (Retired Demon Hunters Anonymous) that he'd broken his vow. It was hard though, the motto 'One day at a time' didn't live up to the excitement of the hunt. Last night he'd headed over to his old prowling grounds and bagged himself a good sized Juuban youma, beat those young Sailor Senshi to it as well, heh! Youth of today, hah! Of course his fellow members of the RDHA would be disappointed with him, but that was the point of having a support group, they helped you up when you fell, or if it finally killed you they mourned and placed another stone marker on the shelf to join the others who had passed away over the years. Old age was a curse for a young mind and soul.

"Ah well, RDHA meeting tonight or Nekohanten?" With the decision made he moved off to make some tea before getting spruced up and heading to see one of the prettiest fillies in Nerima. It really was enough to warm the cockles of an old mans heart.

-Back on the Tardis-

"Doctor? You didn't just open this door did you?" Ranma looked puzzled as he listened to her, he definitely wasn't understanding the words coming out of her mouth. The doctor would have considered not being able to understand English a blessing but she knew he spoke it and several thousand other languages.

"No it wasn't me Tyler. It was one of those Hibiki's, but rest assured he's not on the ship any more as neither of us was watching him when he went through the door." This Ranma understood.

"Good I'd hate to have to shoot another one." And this he didn't, it was beginning to be like listening into a phone conversation, one part intelligible the other part just a garble of noise.

"You and me both." He tried to hide the sarcasm in his voice; he just wasn't trying very hard. The repair bill had been staggering.

"Look I apologized for that already; it was a long time ago. Why can't you just let it drop?"

"It wouldn't have been a problem if you'd been able to hit the broadside of a Tardis."

"The Tardis doesn't have a broad side, it's a square box for crying out loud!"

"Um, er, sorry to interrupt, but how do I get out of here?" Ranma crossed his arms over his chest and glared at the odd couple, they sounded kind of familiar but he couldn't pinpoint where from.

"Oh yes, sorry about that. Tyler this is our guest Ranma Saotome, Ranma this is Tyler. I am known as Doctor Who, why Who you ask. Well I realize you didn't actually ask but I'll tell you anyway. I got tired of everyone who heard my name asking that. Doctor who? I tell you it was either that or Terence and let me tell you Terence doesn't translate into any other dialect and it doesn't get any respect either so I still would have been stuck with Dr. Who." Ranma looked over at Tyler and asked her.

"He go off like this often?" But she just looked at him like he was talking Japanese, which in essence he was.

"Just so you know the only reason I can understand you is that I have a Universal Translator plugged in. Tyler over there doesn't so she can't actually understand you. If you want I can translate for you?"

"Nah that's alright, I'll pass. So how do I get offa this ship?"

"Well with the stabilizer out you've only got so many options, the first is you could stay with us and wait for repairs to be made, then I'd have to finish my current run of contracts. I should be clear to drop you back on Earth in about…" He walked over to the terminal in the centre of the room and began punching buttons, "Ah-ha, I can return you to Earth in approximately eighty years give or take a couple for the repairs I need."

"EIGHTY YEARS!!!!"

"Well yes, would you like something a little sooner?" He was surprised when the young man before him did a face-vault into the tellurium plated floor.

"OF COURSE I WANT SOMETHING QUICKER!!!" Ranma was so irate that he was almost vibrating with the stress of suppressing the need to throttle the idiot standing in front of him.

"Hmmm, I see. Well there is another way, I could drop you off on an Earth like planet and the time it takes me to fulfil my contracts won't be felt by you. Understand though it would still take a couple of years." He continued to punch buttons at a furious rate, which amazed Ranma as he could tell the man before him shouldn't have been able to do the 'Chestnuts Roasting on an open fire' technique. The man before him, who he'd taken to calling baka-man in his head began to grimace before he looked up at Ranma. "Well it seems that there are only two possible planets on out present flight path that are suitable. The first is called Earth, but it's not like the one you're from so don't get your hopes up. If I remember correctly it's got all this strange wildlife called Pokémon. Most of the planets wildlife would be familiar to you, like I said it's very Earth like. Where it differs is with the seven hundred and twenty five known species of Pokémon. They are strange creatures with even stranger powers."

"You said there are two options?"

"You really don't want to know what the other one is." He looked down to find that the youth suddenly had his lapels crushed together in his fist while he dangled a few inches off the floor. Surprising really as the youth was nearly a foot shorter than he was. "Alright if you really want to know…The other planet is called Vorgon." Tyler sucked in a breath at the mere mention of that name.

"What's so bad about this Vorgon place?" Casting a quick glance over at the raven tressed Tyler

"I'll let you decide, Tyler you might want to get some earplugs, get some for me at the same time."

"You can't do that to him Dr., that's just cruel. Not to mention unusual punishment."

"He doesn't trust my word, I'll let him decide." Ranma watched the elfin looking woman run from the room in a panic. It didn't take long before she returned and handed the Doctor two small pellets which he placed in his ears as Tyler did the same and then she bolted from the room saying she still wanted some distance. Dr. Who gave a derisive snort as she departed. "Here you go Ranma; this is the third worst piece of Vorgon poetry known in sentient space." Ranma's eyes crossed and his brain shut down in the first few seconds of the recording, the doctor watched impassively for a second before turning the sound off.

"THERE'S NO F()&)ING WAY THERE'S ANYTHING WORSE THAN THAT!!!!!! DON'T YOU EVER PLAY THAT AGAIN!!!" Ranma waved a fist under the Dr's nose, there was no implication of threat in it, there was a promise, he could see it in the intense blue of the youth's eyes.

"Don't worry I only played it as an example of why you don't want to go there. You see there are indeed two pieces worse than that. Number two is the preferred method of execution on the planet, the victims head is said to explode after a few minutes of listening to it. The poem that holds the number one rank has been outlawed by the Universal Council as a weapon of interstellar mass destruction. I can almost guarantee that you'd be facing the second a mere matter of minutes after stepping foot on the planet, you see they're bureaucrats who'd feel that as you don't have any identification proving you exist, then you don't have the right to exist. The only way to get identification is to have the right paperwork, which would take upwards of several centuries to actually get. Like I said they're bureaucrats, they like to make peoples lives just that little bit duller and painful. Once you actually got the paperwork you'd have to have at least eight generations sign it as proof that you did in fact exist and then provide them with a processing fee that would buy a small planetoid. Then to top it all off you'd have to listen to the Vorgon national anthem, which by the way is the second worse poem ever written by the Vorgon."

"I see...So it looks like it's planet of the Pokemon for me."

"Wise choice. I'll just get some supplies for you. Tyler, where are you! Dratted earplugs. The girls never around when you need her."

"You called doctor?" If Ranma were any judge he'd say the temperature in the room had dropped several degrees with that question.

"Ah, yes my dear, I was just saying that if we're going to drop this young man on an unfamiliar world then we'd better make sure he has some supplies. You can yell at me later if you want, it's just we have only so much time before the window of opportunity closes for him. If you could pull up anything in storage with a Pokémon tag attached to it, I'll go and find a suitable bag for him." He watched as she dragged her ire back under control.

"Right!" She gritted out before walking over to a wall mounted console that he hadn't noted earlier, probably because he had been so focused on the bizarre appearance of the doctor. Then he started to wonder just what manner of doctor the doctor was. Tyler brushed several strands of dark brown hair out of her eyes as she punched the final button and a small mountain of gear suddenly appeared on the floor.

"I can't carry all that! Well I suppose I could." He conceded as he realized there wasn't actually a great deal of weight there it was just bulky.

"Don't worry about that, you don't need all of that anyway. Most of it won't work in such a primitive setting as the world you're going to anyway."

"What do you mean primitive?"

"Well I was there sometime ago myself, though if I'm reading my timelines correctly then it was roughly eight hundred years in the future of where we're currently going to drop you. Funnily enough the world here is about on par with your world so there shouldn't be too much in the way of culture shock. There, I'll just attach this to the back here and you should be right to go." All through his speech the tall man had been stuffing things into the pack; if Ranma was any kind of judge then he was putting more into the bag than the bag could actually hold.

Ranma looked at the remaining pile of goods and gave the small black item a nudge with his toe. "What's this Doc?"

"Oh how could I forget that, that's what's called a Pokedex. It's very advanced compared to the ones available on this timeline so try to be circumspect when using it. It's full of useful facts about the Pokemon on the world, different herbs, berries and plants for both food and herbal remedies. There's a whole section on Pokemon food and treats, and last but not least it's a good general information source for all your daily needs. Such as if you want to know if what's being offered in trade for your money is good or bad then Dex can help you out. Um, just don't open it until you get outside please." Ranma had picked the small black oblong up and had been turning it over in his hands while the doctor had been talking.

"Why not?"

"I'd just take it as a personal favour if you didn't." Then watched in horror as the young boy did just what he asked him not to, if the smile on his face were any indication it was in payback for the Vogon poetry.

"You might as well speak to me, I can hear you breathing over there Doctor." Ranma let the box slip through his hands in shock as he heard the voice coming from it. "Ow, just what the devil do you think you're doing, let's drop you on your head and see how you like it!! The little black box had everyone's undivided attention by now.

"Um sorry about this Dex but we really don't have the time."

"Time? You! Want to talk about time? Try being awake for as long as I have, oh yes I suppose I should thank you for making sure I was fully charged, but I think I'd rather have slept. Two hundred and thirty eight thousand, seven hundred and seventy six years, one hundred and seventeen days, nineteen hours, forty seven minutes and twelve seconds, and you think you've got time problems. Ooooh you're lucky I don't have an offensive weapons suite attached."

"Yes well I think your mouth is more than enough of an offensive weapon. Now Ranma if you could just close him up and place him in the front pocket there we don't have a great deal of time. I'll say goodbye now, Tyler you lead him to the door. When you hear the chime I need you to get out as quickly as possible. Take too long and you could open the door onto a time vortex. Alright do we have all that, we've got several minutes Tyler?" The young woman gestured for Ranma to follow her as she bolted from the room as fast as she could go, Ranma didn't have any trouble keeping up with her though, even carrying the huge pack slung over his shoulder. The number of rooms and corridors they ran through was staggering but eventually they entered a corridor with just one door at the end. Even as they approached they could hear a sudden chime begin and Ranma accelerated past the startled woman and hit the opening door at a sprint and burst out into a wide grassy plain. He turned back towards the ship and his mouth gaped open as he viewed the small blue box that measured almost five feet by five feet and nine feet in height. The woman in the doorway of the Tardis bowed to him.

"Goodbye Mr. Saotome and good luck. By the way, yes he does go on like that all the time" She said in perfect unaccented Japanese before bowing again to the startled young man. Then the door closed, the blue light on top of the box began flashing as an unearthly noise started to saw through the air, and the Tardis, the doctor and Tyler were gone leaving Ranma alone on a planet he'd never been on before. No fiancées, no rivals, no honour debts, no pops and Soun Tendo, no Khu Lon or Happosai for that matter, Ranma was liking this world more and more the more he thought about it. Ranma's grin grew exponentially as he added things to the list of things that he wouldn't have to worry about for a while.

"Yes!!!! Yes!!!!" Ranma did a tumbling run across the grassland forgetting for the moment that he was carrying a pack that weighed almost as much as his cursed form. That is until he heard something in it chime. He stopped the impromptu gymnastics display to take the bag off his back and opened it up to try and find what was making the noise. Having pulled everything out of the bag he remembered the Pokedex in the front pocked of the bag and flipped it open.

"About time! Speaking of which, where are we?"

"Um the doctor said this was Earth, except it's got some kind of creatures called Pokémon."

"You mean I'm home? Finally home? When though, that's the real question?"

"Er, he said something about it bein' eight hundred years before your time if that's any help?"

"Oh my, how primitive. Well I suppose beggars can't be choosers. Now with that information, let me see, ah yes, there's a transporter node about fifty miles that way."

"Um what way?"

"Pick me up and turn in a circle while holding me level and I'll indicate the correct direction." Ranma did as the machine asked and took note of the direction.

"So what's a transporter node?"

"Hmm, oh that? All Pokémon trainers are allowed to carry only six Pokémon at any given time. Though they are encouraged to catch many more, for both the experience and for the added firepower that having different Pokémon can give you. When a trainer catches more than he's allowed to carry the pokeball that contains the new Pokemon will be transported to their affiliated sponsor."

"You make it sound like Pokémon trainers let these Pokémon fight battles for them."

"Bing! That's correct. Oh by the way my name's Dex, who are you? Understand I've got to have you on file as my authorized holder. As the doctor gave me to you I'll have to update the files for identification purposes, which is one of my functions by the way."

"Uh, I'm Saotome Ranma, pleased to meet'cha."

"Likewise I'm sure. Now I'll need a picture of you for your ID, and also we'll have to capture a Pokémon if we intend to pass you off as a new trainer. Luckily I have some advanced pokeballs that will help in that matter. We'll take the photo when we get to town as it works best when I have a table to sit on and a clear uninterrupted view."

"What about the Pokemon? I mean I haven't ever seen one before so how do I know what to catch?"

"If you'll hold me up so that I'm level again, and then turn in a full circle like before I should be able to spot something. This after all is prime Pokemon territory."

"It is?"

"Oh yes, they love the tall grass, it hides them and provides a constant source of food for them. Now pay attention, straight ahead and seventy five paces away do you see the tail? It's brown with what looks like a couple of notches cut out of it."

"Where?"

"There, did you see it move?"

"Yeah I think so."

"Keep an eye on it. That's what is known as a Pikachu."

"Pikachu?"

"Yes, it's a mouse type pokemon. It looks like this," A beam of light shot out of the black bubble on top of the pokedex and formed an holographic image of a bright yellow rodent with a jagged tail. "Take note of the tail specifically, this is important. See how this tail is different to the one over there? This is a male Pikachu; you can tell it easily by how the tail is solid with no notches, that's the female of the species in the grass over there."

"Alright, you said something about catching them?"

"Oh right, learn one thing about the Pokemon and you want to catch it. Alright hotshot, this is an Ultra-ball; it'll allow you to catch any low level Pokemon without having to weaken it first. Oh and by the way Pikachu have very sensitive hearing, she might be a fair way away but she knows we're here. What's more they have a pretty good understanding of human speech, though Japanese might confuse a Pokemon from this area. The longer you know a Pokemon the more of your language they'll pick up, and just so you know if you're a good trainer it works the other way as well. You'll begin to pick up meaning from what they say as well. Well go on, what are you waiting for, you're the Pokemon expert."

"Um, what am I supposed to do with this?"

" Sigh Throw it at the Pikachu, not too hard now, you really don't want to hurt it." Ranma did as he was bid, and threw the pokeball into the tall grass with pinpoint accuracy. The Pikachu gave a startled "PIKA!!!" Before a gentle bzzzzzt sound was heard, followed by a quiet chiming sound. "There you go! You did it, see how easy was that. Of course now comes the hard part. That Pikachu probably won't be too happy at the moment as it's a wild Pokemon and doesn't like to be captured. A word of advice, I'd let it out of the pokeball as soon as possible. It's a good first indication of friendship with some Pokemon, such as Pikachu. I'd be quiet when you retrieve the pokeball as well, female Pikachu tend to congregate in groups called troops. Now if it had been a male then you wouldn't have a problem they tend to be loners, they only meet up with other Pikachu in breeding season, or if they see another of their type in trouble."

"Sounds like my kind of pokemon. Now how do I get it out of the ball?"

"Well you might try throwing it a little ways away and the ball opens automatically on contact with the ground. If you want to be flamboyant you could yell something like, 'Pikachu I choose you!'."

"Right, that sounds easy enough."

"Trust me it has to be when dealing with idiots who think they're going to be Pokemon masters."

"A couple a hundred thousand years you say?"

"I beg your pardon?"

"You said you were in storage for a couple a hundred thousand years didn't ya?"

"That's correct, what's that got to do with anything?"

"I reckon it wasn't long enough, at least not to cure that smart mouth a yours."

"Well I'm sure I'm so sorry." If the pokedex was able to produce human facial expressions it'd be sneering at Ranma at this point, but then the tone of voice already expressed its true feelings

"And so you should be." Ranma tossed the ball into the grass as he turned away and beheld his first live, breathing Pokémon. "If I was a Japanese schoolgirl I'd probably be squealing Kawaii right about now. That's gotta be the damn cutest animal that was ever put on the Earth."

"True it is pretty cute in terms of Pokémon, but that doesn't mean you should rush things, I'd definitely advise caution." Ranma missed the change in tone from facetious to serious in Dex's voice.

"Huh? What can this little cute thing do to me?" He reached down and picked the bright yellow rodent up and held it up so he could look it in the eye. "Aren't you cute?" He glanced away as he heard Dex speak to him.

"What can it do to you? Judging by the way its cheek pouches are sparking I'd say Thundershock."

Ranma turned back just in time to see the evilest grin in the cutest face, just before the sparks in the Pikachu's face ignited into a bright wall of lightning that picked him up and threw him across the clearing.

"CHUUUUU!!!!!"

Ranma crashed through some bushes on his way back to earth and drilled a furrow in the grass beyond where he raised a hand to indicate he was still alive.

"Well I'd have to say I'd have to give that a 9.6 for technical screw-up and a 5.8 for artistic interpretation of the worst way to capture a Pokémon. I have to admit for an amateur you certainly know how to make an impression." Pikachu sat where she'd dropped and cleaned her ear as she watched the still smoking human clamber to his feet and approach with much greater caution the second time.

"Ow! Why you un-cute, uh that don't fit. Ow, kuso, maybe you could give me a little warning next time!" He bent over and snatched the pokedex off the ground in passing.

"Well excuse me! Did I not say to be cautious? Did I not say to not rush things? Oh but who needs to listen to the pokedex, I mean I only hold the distilled knowledge of fourteen hundred years of Pokémon training and breeding. It's not like I know anything!"

"Alright already, ya made ya point!"

"So you'll heed me when I tell you something? If I tell you something's a good idea you'll do it?"

"Yes and yes. You could have tried harder to tell me though."

"I find some lessons are best learned the hard way. sniff . Now I want you to approach her again, slowly this time. When you get to three or four metres away from her you'll have to stop. If you see sparks coming from the red circles on her cheeks back off until they stop. Don't look her in the eyes; she'll see that as threat. Don't smile; think about it, she'll think you're a predator if she sees any teeth. Stay upright at all times, don't crouch as Pikachu may think you're going to pounce on her."

"Got it. Easy girl, I ain't gonna hurt ya. I'm not even angry about that electric thing ya did to me. I've been hit with worse from my friend Ryoga."

"That's right; just keep her attention in a non-threatening manner. Sit down when you stop, I don't have to tell you to do it slowly now do I?"

"Nah, nah I'll be fine."

"Okay now place your hand on the ground, palm up. Towards her. Don't move towards her, let Pikachu come to you." Ranma watched as the little yellow rodents nose twitched, the right ear began to look like a metronome as he began making tsking noises to make sure her attention was focused on him.

"Hmm, I may have misjudged you; you seem to have a knack for this. Are you sure you haven't been here before?"

"I've been in some pretty weird places, but I think I'd remember bein' here. It's not every day I see a bright yellow mouse that's over a foot tall."

"It's not actually that common that most people on this world see a Pikachu either, they tend to stay away from humans. Of course their curiosity is the thing that reels them in most often."

When Ranma looked up again he found that the Pikachu had almost halved the distance between them and her nose was twitching furiously the stronger his scent became.

"That's right, I wouldn't hurt you." She looked up quickly as her ears oriented on the young man in front of her.

"Pika pi, pikachu pi ka?!"

"My name's Ranma."

"Don't tell me you understood what she just said."

"No, it's not that, it's just I reckon the first thing you do with a new friend is to introduce yourselves."

"In a weird sense that actually does seem logical. Alright next take this ball and say Pikachu return. That'll return her to the pokeball where she can rest and\or recover."

Ranma eyed the ball with distaste before moving to pick it up, "I really don't wanna keep her in here. Do I have to?"

"For the moment yes, but only for a few moments. I want her to get the idea that nothing bad is going to happen to her. Plus we'll start to call her forth closer and closer to you as a trust building exercise. You both need to know that you can trust each other."

"Okay, but just so you know I don't like it." Ranma sucked in a breath as a brief squall of rain crashed down around her. Looking up into the mainly blue sky she saw only a few clouds, the one above her was blacker than the ace of spades and was the source of the water that had revealed her curse. 'So it's gonna be like that is it? Damn Nerima weather's followed me here!' Ranma looked at the startled electric mouse and the speechless electric appliance.

"Um, I can explain."

-Earlier, Pokeworld-

Skye (1) was having a really good day, the sun was shining, the insects were tasty and the Spearow flock that attacked her was in full retreat, trailing plumes of smoke from their heavily singed feathers. Several places on the small battlefield were flattened as the weaker Spearow hadn't survived her Thundershock attack and lay in smoking ruin in the long grass. That'd teach them to think that she was a tasty snack. Speaking of which she pounced onto a bush letting off a slight Thunderwave that paralysed the small insect that she was hunting, she crunched into its hard carapace to find it cooked just the way she liked it. There was a great deal of finesse involved in cooking with electric, get it wrong and all you got was a mass of charcoal, not enough and the prey could get away, it'd be singed for sure, but as granny used to say 'Bugs that got away didn't fill empty bellies.'

Skye thought that Spearow were possibly the stupidest creatures on the plain, well except for Pichu (2). Their thoughts tended to center around meal times, and the constant cry while they hunted was translated as "mine!", "mine!" as they vied for ownership of the meal. Pichu were stupid for a whole different reason, they had a tendency to wander, and in fact keeping control of them was nearly as bad as trying to herd Meowth, which was never a good proposition. Of the forty five Pichu born this spring only eighteen were still alive and with a few more months till anyone expected them to evolve they'd probably quarter that number so that only five or six would join the adults of the troop. The troop tried to keep them controlled but when Pichu were involved it was usually a waste of time.

As far as female Pikachu went Skye was nearly unique, many humans assumed that female Pikachu were weaker than their male counterparts. This couldn't be further from the truth, not to say they were stronger or anything but they tended to congregate in groups to make it easier to look after the Pichu(2). The temperament of the female of the species was much mellower than the male, in that they could stand to be around large numbers of their own kind. Males on the other hand tended to be unsociable loners except in breeding season when they sought out the large troops of females to spread their genetic material, after they proved themselves in battle with the other interested males of course. The thing that really differentiated the males from the females though was the fact that the males had that killer instinct that allowed them to go that little bit further than the usual stunning tactics of the female. Females would leave the twitching body of the offender to recover as it may, where as a male Pikachu would leave a corpse. Pikachu are only really cute on the outside, makes it all the easier to underestimate them.

Skye was unusual in that she was more like the males than the females; she tended to patrol further out than the other females in the troop so that she could feel the solitude she craved. It also gave her many more chances to hone her combat skills as hunters that wouldn't dare take on the troop would be more than happy to try for a single seemingly unaware female, the results of which were quiet often shocking. It might be said that she was a bit of a tomboy, but never in her hearing as the reaction was usually violent, in fact she also had a reputation as a bit of a violent maniac(3). She'd just finished her morning snack and assured that there were no flying predators in the area, so she decided that it was time to get some well earned sunning in before she returned to the troop to report to the Matriarch on her actions thus far today, when she heard the most unusual sound that she'd ever heard. There were no words or concepts in Pikachu that covered that kind of sound, other than the fact it wasn't natural. That made it a human thing, something that fascinated her to no end.

Pikachu like many other Pokemon had incredibly long life spans, sometimes measuring in multiple centuries so it wasn't unusual for a Pokemon to outlive their trainer and return to the troop that they used to live with. In fact it was common practice amongst the humans that any Pokemon owned by a deceased trainer were to be given their freedom. Some would remain and pine for the trainer that they'd lived with for so long until they joined them again, but the vast majority would return to their homes, older, wiser and usually a lot stronger than those that had remained behind. The Matriarch of Skye's troop was one that returned and had quickly taken the place of the previous Matriarch in combat.

The sound that had shattered the silence of the plains above Pallet town seemed to get louder as if it approached from a great distance. As she suspected there was only one creature that could make a sound like that, she planned to get a good view of her first humans. The problem was there didn't seem to be a source for the sound; it seemed to come from all directions simultaneously. That meant Skye would need a high spot from which she could survey the grassland that she called home. With a smile she ran for the only such place in two hundred metres of her current location. The young Pikachu hit the side of the ant-mound as a yellow blur using quick attack to speed her advance she clambered up the side of the mound barely noticing as the inch long ants scurried out of her way. The ants weren't sentient but they knew the Pikachu word for them – Lunch. Skye dug her claws into the mound while still nearly a foot from the top and suddenly disappeared as a cloud of dust enveloped her as she came to a stop resting on the top of the hill. She'd have yodeled a challenge to the world but it's a known fact that Pikachu can't yodel, so she let off a Thunderwave that lit the afternoon sky a little. Three kilometers to the south stood one of the few trees in the area, that was where her troop were resting out the heat of the day So she knew that what ever was coming wouldn't affect her troop and they'd remain safe.

The sound intensified further and she nearly had to cover her sensitive ears as it threatened to become overwhelming. That all ceased to be a concern as she beheld the arrival of a human thing. It was the dark blue of night but had a flashing blue sun on top. The human thing flickered in and out of existence a few times before remaining solid.

As the Pikachu watched in rising excitement the side of the human thing opened like a seed pod and disgorged a single figure that she assumed was a human then it disappeared. Her first human really didn't impress her at all, but then again it was over a quarter kilometer away so it might be more impressive closer up. Then she watched as the human seemed to use an agility attack to spin across the grass at an astonishing rate. 'Humans can do that kind of thing as well?' This would bear some looking into. She headed down the mound and trotted towards the figure in the distance, keeping to a slower pace so as not to alert them;she totally forgot that her tail was taller than the grass here abouts. As she approached the human she could hear sounds that could only be the human speak that the Matriarch mentioned on occasion, she couldn't see the human any more but she could definitely hear and if she was right then there were at least two humans here. She was just thinking of returning to the troop and reporting the presence of a couple of humans when a strange sense of foreboding descended upon her, along with a pale silvery blue and gold ball that opened even as it touched her and engulfed her in an eerie red light. The next thing she knew was darkness, it was restful in a way or would have been if she wasn't completely freaked out at the sense of being enclosed, she was a Plains Pikachu and as such liked wide open spaces. While it looked like the darkness of night it didn't fool her for a second there were no bright spots in sky, no breeze stirred and she couldn't sense anything. Reaching out a paw she scraped it against a solid smooth surface. Then she went slightly berserk and let off Thundershock after Thundershock against the impervious substance. She was surprised that she wasn't feeling exhausted at all, even after releasing ten Thundershock attacks in a row. Sensing that she was wasting her time she settled a little until the world suddenly reappeared around her.

Sky sat in the grass and watched the human, she was glad to be out of the ball and gave it a glare that would have caused a smart creature to roll away and hide. Pokeballs aren't intelligent other than in their design, and as such was totally oblivious to the Pikachu's newly developed Leer attack. Finding she was wasting her time she turned back to the sport of human watching only to find that whatever conversation it had been having was now over and that the human was approaching closer and closer, until it loomed over her making her extremely nervous. After all the human was five times taller than her, she was surprised when it reached down and picked her up with great ease until her wide eyes met the blue eyes of the human. That was when it said something to her, she didn't understand what was said, but she liked the way it sounded. Hard as it was to describe the baritone voice of the human sounded pleasant and caused a slight shiver to run up her spine. That was when the human made a mistake, it turned away to address someone else and thus broke eye contact with Skye.

"So you wanna put me in a ball? Well take this!" She grinned as she powered up for a Thundershock attack. Of course what the human heard was "CHUUUUU!!!!!" Just before the Thundershock hit him square in the chest. Sky fell to the ground as the human took flight and crashed through some bushes to land in a smoking heap about twenty metres away. Her ears twitched in irritation as she heard the human muttering, the words might not translate but the tone certainly did and it didn't sound anywhere near as nice as the first thing it'd been saying to her. As she watched the human rise to its feet she started to feel nervous, that Thundershock while not strong enough to kill had certainly been strong enough to put a Fearow out for a few hours. Which raised the question, 'Are all humans this tough?'

She cast a wary eye on the human as it began approaching her again, slower this time, those blue eyes never left hers and the too nice voice was back. Before she knew what was happening she found herself preening as she tried to impress the human. Skye wondered why it was exactly she'd shocked the human in the first place. Oh that's right, ball. She glanced at the ball noticing it was still where it had fallen when she'd been released and then it clicked that the human had actually been the one to let her out of the pokeball. Sky bared the two canine teeth in the equivalent of a beautific smile as she looked at her human, yes she decided, my human. Said human sat down slowly on the ground and extended a hand towards her on the ground. She was close enough to smell him now, and she decided it must be a him as there was something in that smell that told her instincts that he was, well once she got past the smoky smell.

The male in front of her was making a clicking noise that was starting to irritate her, the sound was just enough to make her ears twitch with each repetition, if he kept it up she'd shock him again, she moved closer to make sure she didn't miss. He looked back up to find she was closer, but at least that infernal clicking noise had stopped.

"Thanks for stopping with that noise. I'm Skye, who are you?" Then he spoke to her in what seemed like an answer to her question, she managed to pick out the word Ranma. Then her human, Ranma, which is what she decided to call him until she learned differently spoke to the air again. Which was a slight problem as talking to yourself isn't regarded very highly in Pikachu circles, but it shouldn't be a problem because if he were talking to himself he was a very good ventriloquist. Sky could hear the reply to her humans' words, and then shuddered as Ranma picked up another of the hated balls she'd been in earlier.

She was about to protest when something totally unexpected happened, there was a cloud burst, and the surprise for the electric rodent was that it had only hit her human. Who no longer looked like her human in the least. The Pikachu was about to electrocute the red-head when the girl spoke and Sky felt the same tremor in her spine that she had when Ranma spoke. Sky walked over to the still quite large human and clambered into her lap, she still smelled like Ranma, just a slight difference that felt female to the Pikachu. This was getting strange, the Matriarch never mentioned anything about humans being able to transform or evolve. She understood the concept of growing up, as opposed to evolving, she'd seen many of the small animals that lived in concert with the Pokemon and had made a study of some of the differences before she ate them, but this was different, this was a complete gender change, she thought about actually changing into a male Pikachu and shivered in distress at the mere thought. It was one thing to act like a male but totally different to consider being one.

-Realtime for Ranma-

Ranma looked up at the dark cloud that hung over his head, both literally and figuratively speaking.

"Um, I can explain." But before she could get to that she found that thirteen pounds of Pikachu was sitting in her lap looking at her inquisitively. The Pikachu's head cocked to the side as she considered the changes in her human, and Ranma was making sure that there were no sparks being emitted from the cheek pouches of the mouse.

"Pika? Pikachu, pi pika ka pi?" Ranma was going to take a wild guess that he'd just been asked who he was and where the other human had gone. Unnerving as it was he was actually one hundred percent correct.

"I'm Ranma, sorry about this."

"Nice try, now why don't you tell me what you've done with Ranma?" It seemed that Dex had regained the power of speech. Pity that, Ranma thought as she considered how to get out of this in one piece.

"But I really am Ranma, look you were in storage for two hundred and thirty eight thousand, seven hundred and some odd years right?"

"That's right, but you could have heard Ranma say that earlier."

"But I only said that a couple of hundred thousand years wasn't enough to cure that mouth of yours." Skye had in the meantime placed her paws on the girls' shoulders and was looking up into the same blue eyes that she'd looked into just before blowing her owner across the clearing. That was good enough for her, eyes don't lie, but words were just words.

"Hmmm seems you've made a friend, and you're right, nothing has been said about the length of time I'd been in storage while we've been on this planet. So how do you explain the gender switch?"

"It's kind of complicated, and a fairly long story, you sure you wanna know?" The Pikachu was currently curled up in her lap looking at her while she spoke.

"Yes, in fact I need to know. If what I surmise is correct then either the fact it rained or contact with cold water triggered the change. The fact that you were male when we met leads me to think that there's a second trigger to change you back."

"Yeah that's right. Look, about a year ago my pops decided to finish our ten year long training trip by visitin' some weird training ground called 'The pools of sorrow' or Jhusenkyou in Chinese. There were many cursed pools but I fell in the one that turned me into a girl. Pops fell in a different pool and turns into a panda. Like you said cold water turns me into a girl and hot water turns me back. You want anymore details you'll have to wait till I get some shelter for the night." Ranma looked down as he heard a contented sigh and found that he'd been stroking around the Pikachu's ears, gently scratching the sensitive area until Skye wanted to go to sleep.

"It looks like you won't have to use the pokeballs to tame her after all, as I told you their curiosity is a powerful lure. As for my curiosity I suppose you're right, I'll wait until you're ready to tell me. This does pose a problem though, as you've probably realized cold water is much more prevalent than hot water."

"I noticed, believe me I have noticed. What are you suggesting."

"The problem is going to be there's no place like Jhusenkyou here. People would treat you as an outcast, or a freak. I don't propose that you stay female all the time but you should remain in that form while in contact with other people. There's an added bonus as well, most Pokemon trainers start younger than you and would already have a mentor or sponsor. Your male side looks adult, while your female side is young looking, I'd mistake you for twelve or thirteen in that form. Those ages are acceptable for a novice trainer, but your male side will be frowned at. It's not unheard of, but not common you understand?"

"Yeah, sounds like the story of my life, everything conspires to put me in girl form."

"I don't want to upset you Ranma, it's just it'll be easier to explain all around. I can make a transcript for your male side and show that you're related, that'll give you a reason to change every now and then, but you really should consider remaining female."

"I'll think about it. Now where's this town you said was around here." He oriented on the direction Dex had shown him earlier and started to clamber to his feet with the Pikachu sleeping peacefully in his arms, every so often she'd emit a squeaking snore that sounded too cute for words. He reached down and retrieved the pack that held all her worldly possessions and the pokeballs that Dex had given her. Her motions were so smooth that the Pikachu barely even twitched in her sleep. Once he'd made sure he'd left nothing behind he began walking through the grass towards the promise of civilisation

To be continued?

Authors Notes: - Hello! For those of you who actually read these things, I just wanted to let you know that this is probably not going to be one of the fics I work on constantly, in fact this may be all that is ever released. I don't know if it's any good or not. I just know that I've enjoyed reading both 'Fist of the Pikachu' and 'Unnamed master'. Since then I've gone out of my way to find good Pokemon\Ranma crossovers and failed miserably, there are some good ones out there to be sure, but then again there are some really bad ones as well.

I hope that I got Ranma to his new world in a credible manner, and I hope to see some reviews for this. I'm going to write chapter two to see if I have a viable story.

(1)Skye is a translation into human of a Pikachu naming concept for which the human language has no equivalent. It covers the concept of the way the sky turns almost molten silver at dawn just before the sun crests the horizon. In Pikachu it's a very feminine name, which is kind of ironic.

(2)Pichu are the pre-evolutionary form of Pikachu. Pichu tend to be born in early February which is springtime on the plains of Pallet. This is a time of plenty for insects and other small animals that are the favourite prey of Pikachu. If you think Pikachu are cute then you'd best be prepared for saccharine overload if you ever see a Pichu.

(3)Now what other violent maniacs do we know in the Ranmaverse who are also tomboys? This is based on Ranma half; you'd have to guess there'd be an un-cute tomboy around Ranma somewhere. Luckily it's a Pokemon. For all those who're gonna yell and say Akane isn't a violent maniac I bring forth the defense – Kasumi said so. Now are you gonna argue with Kasumi?


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer:- It is not my intention at any point in time to lay claim to the rights or privileges of the owners of Ranma-chan, or his cohorts in crime. I am but a lowly fan fiction writer. Any attempt to sue me will be found to be futile, as I am very poor. If you would like to change that fact at any point in time, please, please, please, sell me rights to Ranma half for one cent US. Okay, back to reality, I suppose it's back to the mines for me. Pokemon are their own entity, I wanted to lay claim to them but was threatened with mass electrocution, incineration and drowning, I shudder to think what the Psychic Pokemon might do.

Authors note)- Wow, talk about response, I didn't see one bad review. As a reward I'll release this chapter now, like I said I already had most of this written when I released the first chapter so please don't expect the next chapter quite as quickly. The next chapter of Phoenix Ascension is coming along nicely and will be in post production polishing shortly(Once I can kick my muse and get it functioning again). The intermittent problem with Sky and Skye should now be resolved, I changed from Sky half way into this chapter and tried to go back and make changes to chapter 1, I obviously missed a few.

All Pokemon and attacks of said Pokemon are based on the 10th anniversary Pokedex released by Prima in conjunction with Nintendo. So as far as I can tell its accurate. Once they start training with Ranma, well lets just say things will change, just don't expect instant super-powered Pokemon.

Who's a Pokemon Master?

Chapter 2 'The taming of the Fearow'

Ranma was walking through the waist high grass when his danger sense went off the scale and he dove sideways in a tuck and roll. He came up facing the tree he'd been walking towards as a second bolt of lightning crashed into the turf just to his left ripping up dirt in the concussive blast. Pikachu who'd been sleeping in his arms woke up with a start and immediately jumped out of his reach standing before him as if ready to take on all comers.

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Skye was having the most wonderful dream, she dreamt that she'd met a human trainer and that she now belonged with him, The little electric mouse had dreamed of the adventures she'd face with her trainer for most of her life, hanging on the Matriarchs every word as she retold of her battles against all the strange and powerful Pokemon that lived in this world. She remembered the tales of friendships and bravery, the fight won, and even those that she lost as they taught her to be stronger. Oh yes, she'd been a little Pokemon that had big dreams, and now. Well right now she could hear the troops warning call, and her eyes blinked open just as the world inverted itself as Ranma did a sideways somersault and came upright resting on one knee. Quickly assessing the situation she realized just how close they'd come to the troops resting place for the day. Skye felt a crashing need to protect the man who held her so securely. Even against the members of her own troop, not that she'd hurt any of them if she could help it. But to be effective she'd need to be clear so she wouldn't hurt the human.

She leapt from his arms into the grass and bolted forwards even as another bolt of electricity shot past her towards the defenceless human. That was when she saw a massive ball of blue light pass over her head in the direction of the tree where it impacted with a large branch and disintegrated it. A large cloud of inch long splinters flew out the other side as a part of the branch dissolved, the rest of the branch dropped heavily into the grass at the base of the tree and she could hear a number of startled Pika's and Pichu's being cried out. Skye tried to look back over her shoulder at her trainer; surely he hadn't been responsible for that? There must be another Pokemon present, but she couldn't think of any that had an attack like that. All she saw behind her though was Ranma, that's when she learned a valuable lesson. It's always advisable to look where you're going, her paw caught a pebble and the leg folded under her planting her face first into the ground where the momentum caused her to dig a shallow trench. That is until she stopped and felt a paw touch her shoulder, looking up she found herself eye to eye with the Matriarch. Steel the Pikachu called a quick command over her shoulder and the attacks on the lone human suddenly stopped, then she looked back down at the young one who'd held a special place in her heart for a number of years.

"Skye, so it looks like you've finally found what you were looking for."

"Huh?" (She should get on really well with Ranma; she's quite eloquent when she's surprised isn't she?)

"I always new that one day you'd leave this place. The look in your eyes when you'd listen to me tell tales of the greater world. I'm glad for you. You've been working towards leaving for a while now, just like I did all those years ago."

"Matriarch, I….." Sky searched for something to say, but in the end all she could think of was, "….Thank you."

"For what child? For knowing that you were just like I was when I was a youngling? I have good memories of my time out there, now go and make your own, and one day it'll be you telling tales to the young Pichu."

"But…"

"Now you need to lead your trainer around our territory, I don't want to lose anymore of my daughters; they wouldn't like it out there. I think you'll do well with this trainer; she has some skills that I've never seen before. I do hope she can teach them to you."

"Will I? Will I like it out there Steel?"

"Oh yes, I knew a long time ago that the plains here were not big enough to contain you, and that the time would come when you'd leave, now go. She's waiting." Sky turned and looked where the Matriarch was indicating and sure enough Ranma was back on his feet watching the tree warily, but he'd also cast glances at her to make sure she was alright. A feeling seemed to grow inside her when she saw the concern the human had for her even though they'd only just met.

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Ranma was so busy watching his Pikachu running towards the tree that he nearly failed to see the incoming attack let alone avoid it. With his reflexes being on high alert he did the only thing that he could, he jumped straight up, even knowing that it'd put him at a disadvantage, at the top of his arc he flipped to re-orient himself towards his enemies. He'd have to do something to distract them, as he'd deduced that those attacking them were the rest of his Pikachu's troop, and he really didn't want to hurt them. So he threw out a low powered Mouko Takabisha at the tree which also had the added advantage of moving him out of the way of the Thunderbolts and other electric attacks that were heading in his direction. He winced as his attack caused his own Pikachu to stumble and take a nosedive, but he was really too busy to take much other notice until he heard a cry.

"PIKA-CHUUUU!!!!!" All of a sudden all the incoming attacks stopped well not stopped but there were no more on the way after these missed, so Ranma stopped charging for another MT (1) as he waited for the next development. Standing up carefully he watched as Pikachu got up and began talking with another Pikachu. He shook his head thinking about that, he was going to have to think of a name for her as it could be confusing to keep calling her Pikachu. Especially as they may meet others of her kind. Oh well he'd think about that later, right now he was wondering if he'd lost her back to her troop.

The red-headed martial artist heaved a sigh of relief a minute later as Pikachu turned away from the slightly larger Pikachu and bounded back towards him. He smiled as she skidded to a halt on her haunches and spoke to him excitedly.

"Pi, pika pi ka-chu!" He didn't understand a word she was saying but the way she waved her arm and pointed to his right cleared up any misunderstanding he might have.

He repeated her gesture before saying, "This way?"

"Pika!" She nodded at her trainer and dashed off in the indicated direction trailing a diminutive martial artist behind her.

"Well that went well." Dex spoke for the first time in a while.

"Where were you?"

"In your pocket, keeping quiet so I didn't distract you and get us both electrocuted."

"Oh, right. Sorry about that."

"That's alright, apology accepted. Now that we've avoided that, I suppose we'd better get your story straight. Now we can do this a number of ways, but I think I've already explained why I think you'd be best to go in your female form."

"Yeah so you said, what if I don't wanna?"

"Well I can hardly make you do the smart thing can I? I thought you'd agreed to listen to me if I told you something was a good idea?"

"I did, I didn't say I'd do it if I didn't agree, or if you couldn't convince me. Did I?"

"I suppose not. Alright tell me why it's not a good idea."

"Well I'm a guy."

"Yes, and?

"I'M A GUY!"

"You already said that, increasing your volume won't make my question any different. I'm waiting." Dex looked impassively at the young girl, it's not really hard for a black plastic box to do if you think about it.

"Well, uh, I dunno. It's just important for me to be a guy"

"Well, how can I argue with such a well thought out and worded reason as that?"

"Hey! It's easy for you, you ain't gotta be confused about nuthin'. You're just a box, no one cares what you are, just what you do!"

"Now we're getting somewhere. So what you're saying is that others have expectations of you?"

"Well yeah. Don't everyone?"

"I suppose so, so why don't you tell me about some of those expectations? I'm a very good listener you know."

"Um, I dunno, Pops said real men don't talk about their feelings. Anyway it's not like it'll change my mind!"

"I like your 'Pops' already, I'd 'like' to deep fry him in a plasma reactor. I suppose he told you that women were weak and stupid as well, and couldn't do all the things that men can do?"

"Huh! How'd you know that, because I know you haven't met him?"

"No, I've never met him, but I've known people like him. Bigoted people who's opinions aren't really respected by anyone with half a brain."

"You can't talk about my Pops like that!"

"Yes I can, it's my opinion of him and the only way you can change it is if you can prove to me that he's not an idiot. Let me ask you something, do you ever feel happy, like laughing out loud?"

"Yeah, sometimes."

"Well they're emotions, if they make you weak you really shouldn't feel them. I want you to try and imagine your life without them, go ahead." Ranma frowned at the little black box resting in his hand as he tried to do as asked. After a while the frown had turned into a dark scowl. "Hard isn't it? Life wouldn't really be worth living, would it?"

"I, I don't ever wanna think 'bout that again."

"It's lucky you don't have to then, but why don't you ever want to think about it?"

"I think I'd go crazy with my old life and I might hurt someone, might even kill'em." His expression turned grim as he contemplated the thought that he might break the one tenet of martial arts he never believed he could.

"I see, so was your life really that bad?" Ranma paused to think about it.

"Yeah I think it was, it wasn't any one thing, it was just when it gets taken all together that it gets real bad. The thing was that towards the end there it seemed to be the only way to view the situation. I couldn't separate one thing from the other or things threatened to get really bad, like life threatening bad."

"Tell me more Ranma, we've got maybe forty or fifty miles to walk and it'll fill in the time. Now I think I've figured out that you're either a gymnast or a martial artist. And taking into account those attack you used I'd have to say martial artist. For a martial artist you seem pretty strong."

"I'm the best!"

"Really? So there's no one stronger than you on your world? That must make you happy to know that?"

"Um, I guess there's a coupla people stronger than me an' it don't make me happy."

"Ah frustration. Let me explain something Ranma, in a way your father was right about emotions, but he didn't tell you both sides of the story. Emotions allow humans to cope with things that happen to them, like your frustration. If the person gives into the emotion and allows it to rule their life then you could say that the person wasn't strong enough to deal with their life." Ranma thought about that for a moment and found his mind turning to Soun Tendo, now there was a man who had given up and let life happen to him. "Now on the other hand let's take your frustration, if you let it rule you then you might turn bitter and resentful towards the world, but you can use that same frustration to drive you to greater heights making you stronger. I can tell that you aren't the type to give up so you must have gotten stronger."

"Yeah I suppose so, not like a certain un-cute tomboy." Ranma muttered the last to himself not quite quiet enough for Dex not to hear him but quiet enough that Dex knew he didn't really want to talk further about the 'Tomboy'.

"I can say that all emotions are like that Ranma, there are two ways to go with them either give in and curl up into a ball, or grow strong enough that you use them instead of the other way around. Emotions are also a means of communication. People who see your emotions know how to deal with you; they can give support or avoid you as necessary. I'm sure there are times when you'd rather be left alone, but as you don't show your emotions the people around you don't know that and treat you as they normally would."

Ranma remembered a number of occasions when he felt like that and those around him kept pushing until he exploded. Then they'd act like they were the injured party. It surprised him to know that if he'd just shown a little emotion things might have turned out differently.

"I'll leave you with your thoughts for a while Ranma, but we really need to have this resolved by the time we get to Pallet Town. I'll go ahead and create an identity for both of your sides and we'll discuss it later, okay?"

"Sure." But it didn't take long to lose himself in the myriad thoughts that were swirling around in his head It took a while but it seemed like the thoughts swirling in his head were slowly being reassembled with the knowledge that Dex had imparted to him. The knowledge that just a slight show of emotion on his part might have changed the outcome of some of those times, the strongest emotion he'd ever let them see was his frustration even when he was so angry that he wanted to break 'things'. Maybe if they'd known they'd been pushing him into corners they might not have pushed so hard. Then again there were an awful lot of might's and ifs in there, maybe showing the emotions wouldn't have changed a thing, but a guy could hope couldn't he?

Ranma was startled out of his reverie as a weight hit him in the small of the back and scrabbled its way up his pack to come to rest on his left shoulder. Looking up into the dark brown eyes of Pikachu he smiled for the first time in a couple of hours, not that he knew he'd been brooding that long, time had just flown by and the sun was nearing the horizon.

"Oh hi Pikachu, how's it going?"

"Pika!" Ranma guessed that she was doing fine if the grin on her face was any indication. It was strange to attribute human emotions to an animal, but he'd already seen that the Pikachu was capable of more thought than some of the humans he'd lived near. Then he thought of the problem he'd thought of earlier.

"Hey Pikachu. I think we'd better give you a name. I mean I can't keep calling you Pikachu, it'd be like saying 'Hey you!' all the time. Dex can you try to tell her what I just said? (2)"

"Not a problem Ranma, though I'm sure it'd be easier for you to learn English." He spoke for a while in the language that Ranma had been studying at Furinkan High for nearly a year and didn't recognize much of it as what is spoken in the real world has very little to do with what is taught in Japanese schools (3).

"Pika!" Pikachu nodded enthusiastically at the idea.

"Uh okay, but I've been learning English for a while now an' I still don't understand it at all." He replied to Dex's suggestion that he learn a new language. Pikachu cocked her head and then shook it as she thought that was a bit of a mouthful for a name. Until Dex repeated what had been said so she could understand and that's when she started nodding again.

"Hmmm, well maybe you need a better teacher."

"Yeah but I don't wanna go to school here, it'd be a waste of time."

"Well you don't have to go to school, I can teach you better than anyone. All we need to do is talk and intersperse the things I teach you into that conversation. If we do it in front of your Pokemon they'll pick up Japanese at the same time. For the mean time let's try and think of a name for Pikachu."

"Well I think Sakura (4) works, she's cute enough." After a moments translation Pikachu shook her head. "Don't like that one huh, well let me think." He then noticed that she was pointing at the sky.

"Do you already have a name?"

"Pi." Nod.

"Right so we've just got to figure out what it is?"

"Oh charades, I just love charades!" Ranma looked at the pokedex strangely, even he knew sarcasm when he heard it.

"So something to do with the sky huh?" Again she nodded as she heard Dex translate. (5)

"Blue?" Shake. "Cloud?" Shake. He looked up for inspiration as he ran out of easy ideas.

"Maybe we need to be more literal, maybe she wasn't nodding about it being something in the sky maybe she meant the word sky fit her."

"I dunno, why don't you check."

"Pi!" She jumped up and down in her excitement as she agreed. But then she totally confused Ranma as she shook her head as well.

"Huh? What's that mean?"

"I'd say we only got it partially right."

"Oh." He looked down to find that Pikachu had curled up and appeared to be asleep, then as he watched she opened her eyes and acted as if she were just waking up.

"Awake?" Shake. "Asleep?" Shake. "Alright let's try morning?"

"Pika pi!" But again with the shaking and nodding.

"Alright Pikachu give us the next clue." At this the tiny Pikachu pointed at herself, then at different objects around them even including Ranma and Dex. Ranma got frustrated as he named each thing she pointed to in order as best he could. That couldn't be right though as an equally frustrated Pikachu hit him with a light Thunderwave attack that nearly knocked him on his ass.

Sky was looking around for someway to let her owner know what the next clue when she saw something that gave her an idea. She raced over and plucked the Buttercup and then came back to show Ranma, pointing to the flower and then herself."

"Oh! Colour?"

"PI!!!" Much nodding.

"So it's the colour of morning sky?" Shake-nod. "How big is your name?" To which she replied by indicating something really small. "Okay that means it doesn't translate very well then."

"It may just be a specific colour Ranma."

"Pi!!!"

"Right, now all we've got to do is figure out which one, can you help us Pikachu?"

"Pika pika ka." She looked around for something that looked even remotely like what she was trying to describe when she saw the buckles on the bag her trainer had on. "Pika pi!" She jumped up and held onto the closest buckle until Ranma took the pack off and looked at what she had hold of.

"Ah, I get it, just before the sun rises in the morning the sky turns a silvery colour, I think that's what she's called in Pikachu. Try that one."

"PI!! PI!! PI!!!!" Sky returned to Ranma's shoulder to look into his sky-blue eyes.

"Well that's a little much for a name, so why don't we shorten it to Skye, I've heard that's an English name."

"It is indeed Ranma, well I think it works, I'll just ask her."

"Pi pika pikachu." The newly named Skye nodded before returning to his shoulder and patting his cheek.

"Now that that's solved I suppose we'd better get going. I'd like to make Pallet Town sometime tomorrow."

"Why not keep goin'? I can do that easily, in fact I could speed up an' be there in a coupla hours." Ranma looked at the clear bubble on top of the pokedex.

"Oh come on Ranma, that doesn't compute. A world class sprinter could maybe do that distance in the time you stated but only if he could maintain a world class one hundred metres sprint speed over that time. That's just not possible. A runner who tried to maintain that speed would collapse after maybe a kilometre and he'd still have to go another seventy four kilometres to make Pallet town, and that's not even taking into account the terrain."

"Alright, I bet ya I can do it!"

"Hmm, that leaves us in a quandary, you see you don't have anything I need or want. I don't have many needs. I'll tell you what if you lose, which you will, I'll place a future claim on you. That means that at some future time I could claim something within reason that's of equal value to what I wager with you. Does that sound fair?"

"Yeah, sounds fair, as long as you don't Welch on the bet."

"I assure you I've never broken my stated word, and my bet 'is' giving my word."

"Okay, so what do I get out of this, huh?"

"Let's see, you have a Pikachu, so I think, yes that works. Skye here is a Pikachu, now there are two other evolutionary stages of the electric mouse type. The first is the Pichu, the weakest form of the family. The second stage is the Pikachu."

"Pikachu!" Skye was trying to follow the conversation but the only part she recognized was the word Pikachu.

"Yes quite, now the Pichu evolves through feeling of friendship, and love for those who care for it. Now the Pikachu to attain the evolution into a Raichu also needs outside help, but this time friendship won't cut it. Skye here needs a Thunderstone to reach her full potential."

"An' you've got one?"

"No, unfortunately my owner was never able to afford a good enough stone to assure a good evolution."

"Go on, I'm sure you're goin' somewhere with this."

"I am indeed, you see there are deposits of very high quality stones that have yet to be discovered, but I need your word that you won't tell anyone where you got the stones from."

"Why'd I need more than one stone?"

"Most Pokemon evolve through hard work and experience, and some need friendship, but there is another group that need certain types of evolution stones. Well you'd need one for each type of Pokemon of that sort you wanted to evolve. After I tell you where the mine is I wouldn't expect you to only take the one, it would be unfair of me. All I ask is that we don't ruin this timeline by allowing it to be discovered before it should have been. I'm not sure what that would do to the future that I'm from you see?"

"Yes, I can understand that, alright I give my word as a martial artist. I swear it on my ancestors and all future generations of Clan Saotome. Is that good enough for ya?"

"That would be quite adequate, in fact you didn't have to go that far, but it's nice to know that you would pledge on such things."

"If it were my Pops makin' the pledge I'd say the Saotome honour would be shot, but my word you can take to the bank. So when do ya wanna start this?"

"How about tomorrow morning?" Ranma used a massive amount of will power to stop himself from face-vaulting into the hard packed turf.

"I thought you wanted to get there, I'd like to as well. I want to sleep in a bed."

"True it would be nice, but I think there are more important things to think on at the moment. First up I have to teach you some things about the equipment you'll be using, then there're some things that all young Pokemon trainers should know and if you don't you'll stand out like a sore thumb."

"Alright I suppose that makes sense. I don't wanna stand out anymore than I already do."

"You might as well set up camp here, that'll give us time to sort through the equipment you're carrying. It'll also allow you to deal with the Fearow that's currently diving at us."

"Eh?"

"I suggest taking evasive action."

Skye didn't believe in evasive action, she let loose a Thundershock at the rapidly descending bird Pokemon. Which the bird evaded with a flip of a wing that caused it to barrel roll around the lightning attack without losing momentum.

Ranma could suddenly hear the whistling sound of wind through feathers and looked up towards the large bird that was stooping towards him. Reacting as fast as he ever did, Ranma raised his hands and let off a Mouko Takabisha that met the Fearow with a muffled whummpppfff.

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"Fearow!!!" The Fearow that had been searching for the Pikachu that had attacked his flock without mercy earlier had finally struck pay dirt, and to think it was a filthy human owned Pokemon. This was going to be fun.

The bird folded its wings and began to dive towards the human, the first swoop should get the human running and then on the second the Fearow would attack for real. Avoiding a well placed lightning bolt the Fearow continued to dive. The Fearow would never have expected what would happen next. Instead of the puny human running like it should the human stood its ground and let loose with a sphere of light which met it at about fifty metres above the ground, when it made contact with Fearow's beak the thing exploded in a massive concussion blast that did exactly that to the Fearow. The large Pokemon, or at least the largest that Ranma had seen to date continued on towards the ground in uncontrolled flight, the wings completely useless as they'd been pushed back along it's body and the bird was too stunned to even think of pulling out of the dive.

Ranma steeped aside as the biggest and ugliest bird he'd ever seen crashed into the turf with a massive thud. He winced as he heard a loud cracking sound and even though the bird had attacked him he hoped that it wasn't a fatal breakage.

"Good work Ranma, now place it one of those pokeballs you have."

"What? You mean we're gonna catch it?"

"Exactly, it may be the only chance to save it. I clearly heard something break and I won't know what it is until I have it in a pokeball."

"Okay." He tossed one of the silvery-blue balls he'd obtained earlier onto the Fearow and watched as it was pulled inside with a flash of red-light.

"Now place it on top of me so that the button there sits in the pokeport on top of my screen."

Ranma flipped the Pokedex open and saw a small hole at the top of the screen. "Here?"

"That's right, now sit it in tight and put me down on the ground. I'd suggest you set up camp and separate any equipment you don't recognize out of the pack. Come back when you've done that or in half an hour which ever comes last." Ranma put the backpack he'd been carrying down beside the Pokedex and started to pull things out of the bag. A small flat case about ten inches by five and three deep was opened to expose row after row of marble sized balls, they looked like the ultra ball he'd been using so far today but they were only about the size of marbles, and the colours were different being red and white. He figured out they were Pokeballs but needed to ask about them to make sure. Then came a slab of what looked like marble, but it couldn't be as it had buttons on the side and a digital readout. That also went into the unknown pile. Next came various food supplies in containers the like of which he'd never seen before. Down near the bottom past a small pile of miscellaneous camping gear was another machine that he didn't have a clue about, it could literally be anything. That was definitely one for the unknown pile. He unclipped the bedroll from the bottom of the bag and went to find a clear spot where he could roll it out.

Ranma flicked a few small pebbles from his chosen spot and placed the bedroll down to unroll it and stopped in surprise. By this stage he didn't know why he'd be surprised that it didn't look like anything he'd ever seen before. In essence it was a sleeping bag crossed with a one man tent. Opening it up he found that that was exactly what it was, it was basically the same as any other sleeping bag he'd seen except that the outer layer was made of heavy waterproof canvas that encased the whole thing. Near where his head would go wasn't just the typical sleeping bag hood that snugged around the sleepers head but a full canopy that had a mosquito net and weather proof flaps for when it rained. All in all it was about three times as heavy as a normal sleeping bag but would be many times more comfortable. It even had a foam mat to provide support and stop stones from digging into the sleeper.

"Nice." Ranma smiled down at the super bag as he chose to call it and then went over to fix more important things like food. He grabbed one of the packages and tried to decipher what was inside it from the label, but to be honest his English wasn't up to it. So he put it back and decided that he'd wait for Dex to finish whatever it was that the AI was doing.

"Pi ka pikachu chu," Skye trotted over to investigate all the new things that had been unearthed and then turned her nose up when she didn't find anything to eat. Feeling a little puckish she decided to go hunting. Ranma just watched as she ran into the grass surrounding his campsite totally unconcerned because if Skye had of wanted to escape he would have let her, he didn't want a pet or a slave he wanted someone or something to call a friend and partner for maybe the first time in his life. He was however intrigued when he saw intermittent flashes of light coming from the general direction Skye had gone off in.

Skye was pretty much in heaven; food was plentiful here, as the Pikachu clan had never come this way before. None of the bugs ran away so she was pretty much full up within a few minutes. That wasn't what put her into such a happy state though, it was the fact that she'd found a rare Qualot berry bush. The sweet berries had a spicy aftertaste that Pikachu were particularly fond of and she had a whole bush to herself. Normally such a treasure would have been swarmed by the troop and stripped bare but there was only her and a bush laden with berries, sigh what's a girl to do, burp . She couldn't move by the time she'd finished and she was still hoping she could get some more before going back to Ranma. Fortunately for her Ranma was curious about what she was up to and came to investigate.

What Ranma found at the low lying berry bush surprised him, there lying flat on her back grinning for all she was worth was a berry smeared Pikachu. When they'd first met earlier he noticed that she had a slight paunch but now he reckoned the only way to get her back to camp would be to roll her, there was no way her short legs were going to touch the ground, even if she could get upright. The next thing he realized was that the colour blue really does go with yellow fur, just maybe not as a sticky substance, it'd probably take forever to get it out of her fur. Ranma couldn't help himself he started laughing, he laughed so hard that he had to hold his stomach. Then as it was the first time he'd really released any kind of emotion he sat down as tears rolled down the side of his face. It wasn't long before the emotions became overwhelming and his near hysterical laughter at the expense of Skye turned to sobs.

Skye was concerned for her trainer as she listened to her sobbing into her hands, she really couldn't understand what had made him cry but she needed to go over there and try to comfort him. With a great deal of difficulty she managed to gain her rear feet and waddle towards him, Ranma's earlier summation that all four of her legs wouldn't touch the ground at the same time right now was actually the truth. Skye reached her trainer and placed a sticky paw on his leg to gain her attention.

When Ranma looked up through stormy blue eyes she saw the concerned expression on the face of the little Pikachu. Rubbing the tears from the corner of her eyes she sniffed back the remaining tears and spoke to Skye.

"I'm alright Skye, just look at you. You're such a mess." The smile was weak but it reached his eyes in a way that hadn't happened in a long time. Such a long way to come to find a little happiness. "Come on let's get back to Dex and see what's going on." He picked up his rather rotund Pikachu and cradled her in his arms as he carried her gently back to camp.

"Hey Dex, what's happening?"

"Nothing much at the moment I'm afraid. The Fearow you captured is still out of it, but I know that its left wing is broken in four places."

"That can't be good. What should we do with it, I can't release it, an' I won't be able to train it if it can't fight."

"That's where you're wrong Ranma, with the medical technology I have in my control the Fearow should be healed enough to let out of the pokeball by tomorrow morning."

"Wow! That's damn fast, how do you manage that. I thought bones took ages to heal especially in birds?"

"I'll injected nanites into the bird and they'll repair the damage."

"Nanites, I don't think I ever heard of them before."

"Nanites are a technology from my time; they're minute robots that I can program to fix whatever problems a Pokemon has. I can also fix humans up but they need to be in a pokeball for me to do it."

"Now that's gonna come in handy. I could, nah, that wouldn't work. So what other wonders have you got?"

"Well that slab over there is a microwave cooking plate."

"Eh, in that, but it's so thin, and light."

"That's right, remember I'm from the future. Now all usual microwave rules apply such as no metal, live animals you know the kind of thing."

"Nah, Kasumi ain't got one of them things, she likes to do things traditional like."

"Hmm, I suppose where I'm from the microwave is traditional, now if you want novel you try cooking with a naked flame. Somewhere in the bag there should be some ceramic cookware to go with this?"

"Yeah, I found it but I knew what it was so put it back. So how does it work?"

"Well I'll explain that when you're actually going to cook something, it's much easier that way."

"Alright! I'm starving, so what do I cook?" He reached over and picked up the food package he'd put down earlier.

"I wouldn't try that one. That's Pokemon food, in fact Skye would like that one. It's got berries in it, well at least thirty percent of it."

"An' what's the other seventy percent?"

"Well there're some nutrient supplements and minerals, but mainly it mashed up insects." Ranma gave the can in his hand a look of repugnance.

"Erg! Hey Skye I think this ones yours." By this time his only answer was the sound of snores coming from his sleeping bag. "Oh well, I'll see if she wants some in the morning, though how she'll fit it in after the berries she ate I don't know."

"Berries? Describe them for me please."

"I dunno, I was too busy looking at Skye, though I can tell you she was covered in blue juices."

"Hmm, it might be wise to gather as many of those berries as you can Ranma. They might come in handy."

"Alright I gather while you hold Skye off, I reckon if she goes anywhere near that bush she's gonna make herself sick."

"If it's what I think it is then you're probably right, so why not do it while she's sleeping?"

"Good idea, then all we've gotta do is keep her out of wherever we store them."

"That's not a problem, I can store up to one metric ton of equipment and supplies and up to eighty occupied pokeballs."

"Right and when were you gonna tell me about that? After someone saw me with all this hi-tech stuff?"

"Erm? Well don't look at me, I can't think of everything."

"Well no, I suppose not, but I thought you were like super intelligent."

"I am Ranma. That's why I'll let you learn things for yourself, if I make all the decisions then you never will. Do you see what I mean?"

"Right. That makes more sense than the way Pops raised me. So you're gonna carry all the hi-tech stuff an' I'll carry everything else. Good that means I stand an even better chance of beating you tomorrow. So what's all the rest of this stuff? I thought these might be pokeballs, but they're a lot smaller than the ultra-ball you gave me earlier."

"Oh good, he did give you some pokeballs, I'll have to reconfigure them so they look like the pokeballs of this era but that shouldn't take too long. Put them down within a couple of metres of me Ranma." Ranma complied and watched as they disappeared into the machines own hyper storage area.

"I should be able to have some modified for you in the morning. Now I have to change them because these are much smaller than they should be, and they're more efficient as well. A standard pokeball from my time would be equivalent to a ultra-ball from this time. I can hide their efficiency as long as they look like a normal pokeball."

"Uh-huh, so what's this?" Ranma pointed at the machine that didn't give any kind of clue to what it could be.

"That? That's an automatic seamstress. Plug in a pattern, give it some material that you like and it'll make clothes for you. It can handle just about anything from silk to wool. Later on as we head into other areas you may find some of the Pokemon that produce natural fibres, then all you'll need is dye blocks to colour the raw material or thread and you're set. It's a great way to make money, and save money. Of course it's also one of the things that we'll need to hide."

"Thought so." Ranma had kind of figured that anything he didn't recognize was going to be too advanced for this world. "I'm still hungry though Dex, so what out of this can I eat?"

"Well anything in a green package really….." After fifteen minutes Ranma settled back with a plate of food that was better than anything he'd had on a training trip before, unless his father had stolen it or Kasumi had packed it.

"Heh, this ain't bad, I could get used to this."

"Don't, once we get into town we're going to get supplies and you'll have to cook like a normal person. Now that you've got some food are you prepared to listen to the history I've created for you?"

"Yeah, go ahead. I'm listening."

"Taking into account you're Japanese heritage I've placed your birth town as Crimson city over in Johto region, as it's a major metropolis where a significant number of residents are Asian in appearance. Your father got a job with a company that transferred him to the Hoenn Islands when you and your brother or sister whichever you decide, were still young. You grew up in the Hoenn Islands. Now I'm going to hack into the information network and show that you became a trainer in Hoenn but indicated that you wanted to come to Kanto region to meet your idol."

"An' who would that be?"

"That would be Professor Oak, he's a world renowned Pokemon researcher, he also acts as a mentor and sponsor for the children of Pallet Town. Given that he's your hero it's not unreasonable for someone to travel over here to meet him, which would mean that transporting your Pokemon to a facility in Hoenn would be inconvenient. Plus he runs a government funded care facility for young trainers Pokemon."

"So what's he get out of it?"

"Well it allows him to study any rare or unique Pokemon you capture. Also if you start to earn money as a part of your Pokemon career he may legitimately claim a small percentage for himself. Then of course there's the prestige, if you become famous then that reflects well on him. So he has plenty of reasons to make sure your Pokemon are well cared for."

"Okay. That's all good, then what?"

"When you meet him I suggest acting star struck, As if you were meeting your favourite celebrity, I'll give you some of his history tomorrow so that you'll be able to talk about him. While you've got him distracted I'll hack the computer network and plant records of both you and your brother, believe me he'll check your school records and any Pokemon training you've received before accepting you. Once he's got you calmed down, the next thing he'll do is check the newly created records to see if you're worthy. Depending on the date he may even offer you a start up Pokemon, if there's a Bulbasaur available I'd take it, they make a very powerful first Pokemon. Not that Skye isn't but she's only a single type Pokemon whereas the Bulbasaur is both a Grass type and a Poison type Pokemon. But that offer only stands once a year so don't get your hopes up. Bulbasaur in the wild are extremely rare so if we see one you will try to capture it."

"Alright, you're the boss." Ranma smirked at the pokedex.

"It's getting close to nine o'clock so I think you'd better get some sleep now."

"Now 'that' sounds like a good idea, it's been a real long day. Not to mention weird. See ya in the morning Dex."

"Yes you will Ranma, I intend to collect on that wager."

"Not a chance." Ranma slipped into the sleeping bag and zipped it up. As he lay there watching the full moon rise higher into the night sky he pondered the momentous changes in his life a few short hours had made. A whole new world he thought to himself, as sleep caught him in its soft embrace he closed his eyes with a smile.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The next morning found a bleary eyed Ranma blinking in the bright sunlight that invaded the hood of his bag. For the first time in a long time he'd managed to sleep himself out, at least until a klaxon nearby threatened to burst his eardrum.

"Can it Dex, I'm awake already." It wasn't quite the truth but it came pretty close.

"It's not me Ranma, there's a Dodrio nearby."

"Is that a Pokemon?"

"Yes, and if you're quick you might even be able to catch it." Ranma scanned the area for anything unusual but couldn't see anything

"Where is it then? I can't see anything."

"It's right there!" Ranma was startled as a puffball head with a long beak peered into the canopy before picking a stray ant off of the canvas bag. In the process he learnt that it was never a good idea to startle a Pikachu awake, especially if it was confined to a sleeping bag with you. Skye bolted out of the bag and took up a position standing on the foot of the super bag. She was torn between watching the rapidly disappearing dust cloud that represented the Dodrio and the dispersing cloud of smoke produced by her electrocuted trainer.

"Damn it Skye! Stop doin' that!!"

Skye looked contrite for all of ten seconds, until her trainer emerged from the bag looking like a ginger dandelion seed head, then she cracked up and fell off the sleeping bag as she convulsed with laughter (6)

"Oh now aren't you a picture? I think this deserves a snapshot."

"Hey, I thought you needed a table to take pictures?"

"Not really, I only need that for identification photos. Snapshots of your training journey can be taken when ever, I think I'll call this one, 'Why it's best to let sleeping Pikachu lie.' Speaking of training trips the day isn't getting any younger Ranma. I hope you rested well last night because I'd hate for you to use that as an excuse when you lose our bet."

"Yeah I slept pretty good, wakin' up was a bitch thou. Then again nothings changed there. As fer the bet, you'd better get ready to tell me where the stones are because Ranma Saotome don't lose."

"We'll see. We really should check on the Fearow you caught last night before we leave."

"Nah, we can leave it for a little while can't we, I just want to get somewhere where there are people."

"Okay Ranma, I removed the nanites during the night, all repairs were completed. Fearow is in top condition and he's handling being confined in the pokeball well. Just don't leave it too long huh?"

"Yeah. Right I suppose I'd better clear camp and get on our way." Ranma cleaned up the site and packed his gear. "Hey Skye! You might wanna get on the backpack now, once I start movin' you might have some trouble keepin' up." The little mouse glared back as if to say 'yeah right' before she walked away.

"Alright suit yourself, but I warned ya." With that Ranma took off and left Skye to follow as best she could, it didn't take long to figure out that Ranma hadn't been lying when he said he was quick. She had to use a quick attack to even get close. After five minutes they'd covered nearly three kilometers of grassland and Skye's normal breathing was a thing of the past. She'd never maintained this kind of speed for such a long time before, and she had no idea how long they were going to maintain it for either. Ranma was keeping a close eye on the little Pikachu to make sure he didn't leave her behind, after ten minutes he was genuinely impressed, she had it much harder than he did as she was closer to the ground and yet Skye still managed to keep pace with him. But he recognised the onset of exhaustion in her eyes and breathing so slowed down and scooped her up, it took a few seconds for her to understand that she no longer needed to run, and stop her legs from moving. He opened the pack and placed her inside and fastened it so that she wouldn't fall out, he hadn't slowed down at all while doing it either. Once Skye was secure he picked up the pace even more, which was something that Dex didn't think was possible.

Skye was a little dazed by events, she didn't understand the concept of a wager so she didn't see why her trainer was pushing himself so hard. She tried to keep up, using quick attack over and over again but was grateful when Ranma plucked her off the ground and stuck her in the bag, she'd been running on sheer will power for nearly a minute and her reserves were disappearing fast. Ranma on the other hand just seemed to get faster once she was safe.

Dex was stunned, he figured that in the first twenty minutes Ranma covered seventeen of the seventy six kilometres, as such he was maintaining a speed of just over fifty kilometres an hour, as such he was going to reach Pallet town well within the two hour time limit. Now he wasn't even sure if the natural terrain would slow the youth down, after all he'd just been served notice that normal need not apply to Ranma Saotome

Ranma was just beginning to worry, he must be more out of shape than he realized as he'd only been running for forty eight kilometers when he started to get short of breath, but he pushed on there was no way he was gonna lose the bet. It took another two or three kilometers for him to get his second wind and in that time the stitch in his side took its toll on him. But with the renewed vigor he sped up once more and was soon back on track. Until he noticed that the plain was coming to an abrupt end about several hundred metres in front of him.

He slowed to a stop and looked down, and then down some more. The ground seemed to be about a hundred or so metres below and the cliff face was vertical, he couldn't see any handholds either.

"Hey Dex, you didn't mention anything about any cliffs."

"I did tell you the terrain could slow you down didn't I?"

"I suppose so, but this is unfair."

"So are you ready to give up, do you want to quit and forfeit the bet?" Dex was sure of his victory now.

"No, Ranma Saotome doesn't even know the meaning of those words."

"If you like I have a handy dictionary function and could give you the definition of each word, I even have a thesaurus function if you want more words."

"I'm gonna ignore you now, just so you know. I ain't losin' this bet." Ranma looked over the side of the cliff at the forest below and the ground that was even further away. Then something caught his attention, something that made him smile. Lining himself up he paced back a couple of metres and then ran.

Skye couldn't believe it, she'd lived on the plain all her life and never knew that there was such a thing as a cliff, and looking over Ranma's shoulder she found more trees than she could count almost as far as the eye could see. It didn't take much for her to understand what had made her trainer stop his headlong flight across the plain. The thought of falling that far certainly lacked a certain appeal. Ranma and the black box had another conversation while she waited patiently for something to happen. It had taken awhile but she'd finally figured out that the second voice came from the small black object that looked like a pokedex except for the colour. When she felt Ranma back away from the cliffs edge. She looked around for some reason that he might have backed up ten metres from the edge but couldn't immediately see anything that would cause him to do so. Then as he started to run she blinked.

"Pik pi pikachu!!!" 'You're going the wrong way!!!"

"Hold on Skye we're goin' in. GERONIMO!!!!!!" Ranma hit the lip of the cliff at a dead run and sailed out into the clear morning air. It's crazy what you notice at times like this, he could feel the silken caress of the cool morning air, the way the sun warmed his skin. For some reason the whole world seemed larger, and brighter than it did just a little while ago, that might have been some part of his brain trying to take it all in for the last time before impacting the ground at high speed.

'If I miss this it's gonna hurt!' Ranma discovered that eighty metres in the air and falling was not the best time to start having doubts. His Pikachu on the other hand didn't have any doubts.

"PIKACHU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Which loosely translates as, 'YOU'RE CRAZYYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!!' Dex was once again speechless, in fact he'd gone into total CPU shutdown. In the meantime Ranma struck the top of a sixty metre pine tree and grabbed on for dear life, which was a good idea. The top ten or so metres of the tree was still thin and springy enough that it helped dampen his momentum, not enough though as he exceeded the trees tolerance and it snapped. 'Ok time for Plan B,' Ranma's thought processes ground to a halt, 'Um guys, we do have a Plan B don't we?'

The reply came back, 'Er, we thought that since you're the brain you might have been handling that. Oh KUSOOOOOO!!!!!" (7)

Ranma crashed into the top of another tree and found himself wrapped around a sturdier section of branch, he just managed to figure out what was going on, but really didn't need to as his body had already grabbed onto the branch and was clinging for dear life. Just goes to show that some part of him was actually thinking.

Skye who had closed her eyes and found religion at the same time as Ranma started having doubts popped them open in surprise as they stopped, without the mass of pain she'd been expecting.

"Pika!" She peered out through the flap of the backpack onto a drop of nearly thirty five metres and then looked at her trainer who'd gone white. He wasn't letting go of the branch anytime soon it seemed. She clambered carefully out of the bag and landed on the branch where she balanced precariously for a moment before making her way past Ranma and climbed down the trunk of the pine tree, for some reason she needed to take a call of nature, she couldn't possibly think why. When she returned she saw that Ranma still hadn't recovered, which was good, maybe he wouldn't do anything that stupid again.

"PIKachU!!! Pi Pikachu!" Which could be translated as 'Amazing, that were still alive!!! And you! You're still CRAZY!" Just to let him know how little she appreciated what he'd done she hit him with a Thundershock, which had the added bonus of getting him out of the tree.

Thudddd The pig-tailed martial artist groaned as he lay 'in' the pine scented forest floor. The small crater that he was at the centre of, being caused by a hundred and ten kilos hitting the soft loamy soil from thirty odd metres up. Looking back up through the branches he could see the cliff face looming above him.

"Damn that's a long way! It didn't look that bad from up there. Hey Dex, if I ever do anything that stupid again, talk me out of it huh?" The fall had add the added bonus of bringing Dex back on line, unfortunate for some.

"THAT WASN'T STUPID!!! NO, I TAKE IT BACK, THAT WAS INSANE!! I'm going to change your history, you're not an aspiring trainer, you're an escapee from an Asylum!!! I'll have you hunted down and put in a padded cell for my protection."

"Calm down Dex, we made it. We're all right. Ah come on Dex, I hate to see a pokedex cry."

"I am not crying, I'm not capable of that emotion. That has got to be the most stupid thing I've ever been a witness to."

"Coulda fooled me, you were whining like a little girl. If it helps any I happen to agree. Next time I'll think about it more carefully."

"NEXT TIME!!!"

"Uh a little louder next time Dex I think I can still hear out of my left ear."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up! I'm not talking to you!"

"Do ya promise? Now how long do I have to finish this bet?"

"You're still planning on winning the bet?!! Don't bother, I forfeit. If it stops you from doing stupid things like that. You could have killed us all with that."

"Nah, I don't think so. I woulda broken something though."

"You've got to be joking, no one could survive a fall from there."

"Look I won't tell you anything about Pokemon if you don't try to tell me what I can and can't do with martial arts. I've been training all my life, an' I mean all my life. From before I could walk, I lived and breathed the art. I told you I'm the best. There may be others stronger than me, they may have more skills but I beat them all. I learn what they know even as they use it on me. There aren't any limits I can't break, because they're all in my mind, an' I won't accept defeat. You understand me! I won't be beaten. I can't be beaten…." Ranma wound down from his personal tirade as the tears streamed from his eyes. He'd taken a lot from a lot of different people, all trying to tear him down. In the fires of such doubt had been forged a will stronger than steel, under the pressure to perform he'd become harder than diamond and with the challenges he faced he'd learned flexibility that few could comprehend. Ranma Saotome 'would' be the pre-eminent martial artist, there was no room for doubt. As the adrenaline from his near death experience started to leave his system his shoulders slumped, nothing could defeat him, yeah except maybe himself.

Dex remained silent as he wondered what kind of life could create a mind like this, a mere child he might be, but…..Words failed him, there was no way to understand what life had shaped Ranma. Even if Ranma told him he doubted he'd understand it.

"Ranma, I….I don't know what to say. Are you alright?"

"No, I'm not, I don't know how to make it alright. No, that's not right, there's only one way to make it alright, I have to be the best, whatever I do. If I'm not then all my life is a waste, all that pain, all the effort was for nothing. Can you understand that?"

"I think I can, and I thought I had problems. If that's the way it's got to be Ranma then let's make sure you are the best. Here that means being a Pokemon Master."

"What's a Pokemon Master?"

"Martial arts aren't the same here as where you're from, oh I don't doubt you could forge a life here based on your martial arts, but most people won't understand what could drive you to put yourself through that kind of pain. On the other hand Pokemon they do understand, the challenge of being the best trainer of them all. There you can do great things, and in learning to understand the Pokemon you may learn something about yourself as well. Pokemon Masters are the best of the best and every young trainer out there aspires to that lofty peak."

"Yeah, I got that, but why?"

"Why did you want to be the best martial artist, why strive to be the best at anything Ranma? You don't train just so that you can beat everyone else up now do you?" Ranma shook his head at the absurdity of the question, he trained so he could protect the weak. "It's a natural drive Ranma, no one sets out to be the worst, everyone hopes they will be respected if only they can be good enough."

"Respect? I, I think I can understand that, even if I was really strong, it didn't seem to matter. No one gave me any respect."

"Respect isn't a given Ranma, oh they may respect one aspect of you, your strength maybe, but they don't have to respect you. Respect is earned through words and actions Ranma, it's something you must earn anew everyday. The man you respect today may not be that same man tomorrow." Dex watched as Ranma straightened his shoulders as new determination coursed through his veins. He would be the best, whatever he did, he would excel.

"Right! Where do I start Dex?"

"Start at the beginning Ranma, you have two Pokemon already. Skye here may not like you very much at the moment but she'll come around. Now on the other hand that Fearow you caught last night isn't likely to be happy with you at all. As a species they have a foul disposition. You're not likely to make friends with him, so get what you can."

"Alright, lets start with respect, and work up to trust."

"As a first battle it'll be challenging Ranma."

"I think I've got an idea, give me the pokeball Dex."

"Here you go, if you're sure?"

"Like you said I gotta start somewhere, I might as well start with what I've got." He tossed the ball into the pine needles and the ball disgorged an extremely irate bird.

"FEAROW!!!!!" Which earned the bird a glare from Skye who didn't appreciate that kind of language.

Ranma walked forward until he was a couple of metres away, the bird might be only half as tall as his male body but that bird could do serious damage with its beak alone.

"Hi, I'm Ranma, and I'm your trainer." Dex translated for the others and Ranma guessed they'd been understood as the Fearow mantled its wings and hissed at him.

"Don't be like that. Do you want to tell me who you are? This is Skye my Pikachu." He gestured down as he was joined by Skye, she put herself between the two as if to stop the bird if it attacked him. Ranma had other ideas of course.

"FearOW! FEAROW!!!" He was willing to take a wild guess that the Fearow still wasn't being very nice.

"What'd he say Skye? Come on I won't be angry at you, just tell me." Skye shook her head at first but after being reassured he wouldn't be mad at her she relented and began the game of charades. Fortunately this one would be easy.

She started by making eating motions, then moved her hands towards her tail before clutching at her throat and falling over backwards.

"Right I think I got that Skye, strange name to be wanting to be called if you ask me. Hi Eat Shit and die, I'm Ranma." The Fearow blinked at the translation then squawked in outrage.

"FEAR!!! ROW FEAROW FeaROW!!!!" A quick glance at Skye had her translating for him. She motioned for him to approach then pointed at the ground, then at the Fearow, made the dieing motion again and then pointed at Ranma.

"Alright so that's the way you want it huh? Okay here I come, you wanna kill me? Do your worst!" He walked towards the Fearow who began to grin at the stupid human. When Ranma was in range the Fearow unleashed one of its most deadly attacks, Drill Peck. Its head shot forward faster than the eye could follow as it aimed for Ranma's chest, one attack and it would be free. Then it'd take care of that Pikachu.

Ranma watched the attack coming almost like it was stop gap photography and casually reached out and used a sword stopping technique to trap the beak mid attack. It took a moment for the Fearow to realize what had happened before its eyes crossed trying to look at the humans hand grasping his beak. Then it watched as the other hand came around almost in slow motion to stun it.

"You call that an attack? You're slow, and weak. You want to see power?" Ranma walked away from the stunned Fearow. Approaching one of the pine trees he barely paused to set himself before punching the tree. The force caused the tree trunk to split straight up the middle before the twisting motion added an explosive force to that already exerted on the wood and the tree exploded in screaming protest. Foot long splinters showered the forest beyond wreaking even more damage as they tore through smaller trees or slammed into the larger ones like throwing knives. The tree he'd struck toppled away from him as eight feet of it's trunk suddenly disappeared. Ranma turned away from the destruction before it had even stopped and caught the eye of the still stunned bird. Before blurring so fast that the bird didn't have time to blink in the time it took for Ranma to cover the eight metres between the two and it found its neck in an iron grip looking down the barrel of a loaded fist.

"You may not like me, Eat Shit and Die, but you will respect me. You understand?"

"Fearow fear, fearow." The bird didn't want any kind of misunderstanding at this point and was nodding furiously.

"Right. Now I can't be having a Pokemon with a name like that so I'm gonna call you Feather Duster, you alright with that. I'm gonna call you that because if you ever attack me again that's all you'll be good for." Dex translated for the martial artist who got a nod from the subdued Fearow.

"Good, now I'm gonna put you back into this pokeball for a while so you can rest, we'll be traveling together for a while so let's try to get along huh? Feather Duster return!" The red beam reached out and snagged the unresisting bird back into the safe confines of the pokeball.

"Ranma you wouldn't really have hurt the Fearow would you?"

"Nah, but he don't have to know that. Once we've been in town I'll work on the trust side of things." He reached down and scratched between Skye's ears as she looked up at her trainer. "What do ya say Skye, you ready to take on the world?"

"Pikachu!!!"

"Good, then Pallet town here we come." Ranma didn't hear Dex mutter a very quiet 'And may god have mercy on us all.' Only half in jest as he'd never seen anything like Ranma before.

To be continued?

Authors Notes)- Right here's the second chapter I promised you all, as I said I don't know if I'll continue it for a while yet but I think I've got a viable story. I suppose the thing that'll turn this from a low priority to a high one will be reader response.

I kind of wanted a different Ranma in this story, like Phoenix Ascension, you're probably going to complain that Ranma is OoC, my response is life changes and so do people. Ranma's in a whole new world with a lot less stress on his young shoulders, maybe this is the real Ranma and the one in canon is the one who's OoC. Wouldn't that be a hoot?

As always, reviews are appreciated, I'll even take flames, after this chapter I may not have any choice, as the purists rally to stake me over an anthill.

(1) MT, is short for Mouko Takabisha if you hadn't already guessed. I never quite understood the need to yell out the name of the attack before launching it; it'd be like giving the enemy a 'get out of Mouko Takabisha free' card. Plus it'd sound much cooler to walk over to your still smoking enemy and quietly inform them what they were just hit by, just in case they were wondering.

(2) Ranma is speaking Japanese and the Pokemon in this area understand basic English so he's going to have to either learn English or teach Sky Japanese. Dex is of the opinion that it'd be easier to teach Ranma English.

(3) It's true, for many years teachers in Japan have been teaching Engrish (that's not a typo) to their students. It's one of the reasons why a student who's been learning the language for six years won't understand you if you speak to them, and you probably won't understand them either. For examples of Engrish I suggest a quick visit to Engrish dot com. You won't believe some of it. It's only in the last decade or so that more progressive schools have started to teach the real language to Japanese kids.

(4) Sakura or Cherry blossom, very traditional girls name.

(5) From this point on you can take it as read that what Ranma says has been translated into English if a Pokemon responds to him. If not I'll state why. Trust me it'll be easier then typing Dex translated every time they speak.

(6) Pikachu do laugh, check out episode two of season 1 of the anime. Pikachu climbs a tree where he laughs his head off as Ash tries to catch his first Pokemon until Ash annoys a Spearow.

(7) Kuso is the Japanese word for 'Shit' a mild curse word. Chikuso is just a little stronger.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer)- "Good evening, I am Pontificator man, father of Disclaimer boy and Exclaimer boy, I shall now give a prepared statement" Pulls a soap-box out of stuff space and steps up on it, "In my humble opinion it is wrong, verily, wrong I say that one who writes Fanfiction should monetarily profit from the writing of such. The only thing such a one should receive is some form of verbal appreciation, in keeping with said writers actual skill level. The particular works this Fanfiction is based on are Ranma half and Pokemon, which are owned by Rumiko Takahashi and the Nintendo corporation respectively and Porthos112," He looks at the writer and whispers, 'That is your name right?' at my nod he continues, "Er correct, Porthos112 makes no claims other than to his own intellectual property in the stories he creates with the characters. I thank you for your attention." The lycra clad individual steps down from his soap-box and takes a bow.

Who's a Pokemon master?

Chapter 3 'When Pikachu attack!'

Authors' notes.

I don't know what to say, frankly I'm stunned. I thought the reader response to 'Phoenix Ascension' was fantastic, and it is. But the response to this fic has left me, um, stunned (I already said that), flabbergasted, shocked, er yeah; I think you get the idea. I was hoping to get people interested in this but never had any idea people would respond so positively. I may not respond to reviews, I just want people to know how appreciative I am that they took the time to review. I've just got my own internet connection though it's extremely time limited being a Wi-fi internet connection. I said something about reviews inspiring me; well you can consider me duly inspired.

I was thinking of changing the name of this fic, to tell the truth I kind of liked one reviewer's suggestion, "Of pigtails and Pokemon," wish I'd thought of it. Now that I've got two chapters up and this one about to, well I think it might be too late to do that, but let me know what you think.

Some of you have asked for a basic timeline, well ok I guess I can do that. Ranma half is between learning the Umi and the Yama sen-ken, so he knows, kachu amaguriken, Bakusai(yes I know he didn't get taught it, but he did observe it), Mouko Takabisha, plus of course the Umi-sen-ken, Hiryu Shouten Ha, splitting c-c-c-at hairs, and rudimentary hidden weapons (he's seen that too). The Pokemon timeline, read this chapter and all will be revealed.

There are no planned match-ups yet, but that may change at my discretion, and if things do change it won't (**WILL NOT**) be female Ranma + male character. It would take too much attention away from the plot. Not to mention the groundwork I'd have to prepare to make it happen in a believable manner. Also I don't think that's in Ranma's character, for him it's girls all the way, and fifty percent of the time that's an absolute truth.

Capitalization of Pokemon speak is to show that the Pokemon emphasize certain parts of the words and that's how the word 'pikachu' can mean so many different things. As for Vorgon Poetry, well all I can say is you'd swear like that too, and 'screamed' is such a passé way to say that major pain has been inflicted via auditory overload.

Personal pronouns, confusing yes, I'm trying honest, but Ranma will always refer to himself as a male. "I'm a guy!" He's said it often enough but I'll really try to cut out the confusion. Sorry about that.

Let the chapter begin.

After all the excitement of yesterday Ranma finds himself heading into the peaceful town of Pallet. On his way to meet Professor Oak he's treated to a strange sight. Alright I'll clarify, stranger than usual.

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Ranma was doing something he had very little chance to do in his life, he was simply walking and breathing in the day. Simple, unadulterated pleasure in the touch of the sunlight on his skin and the thought of a new life without the complications of the old. Above the sky was filled with high clouds and nary a threat of rain. Life he decided was good.

"Hey Dex, I just thought of something."

"What's that Ranma?"

"Well we may have a problem with the story you put together."

"Go on." Even AI's don't like to be told they've made a mistake.

"Um, well I don't speak good English. What language should I be speaking if I lived in Hoenn?"

"You'd be a natural speaker of English, I see, I hadn't computed that into our situation."

"We could just say I'm from that Crimson city place you mentioned and keep the rest of the story. Nothing says I can't choose to enter this regions league rather than the one in Johto does it."

"No, the rules are pretty flexible in that respect. Though it is preferred that you start in a region close to home and family."

"Yeah but I don't have any family so that don't work for me. I'm an orphan with a little sister who's gone off on her Pokemon journey, freeing me to begin my own. Um, Dex?" Ranma paused and blinked a few times to make sure his eyes were working properly before looking at the pokedex in his hand.

"Yes Ranma?"

"I just wanted to check, are you seeing what I'm seeing?"

"That depends Ranma, what are you looking at?"

"That boy over there with the Pikachu?" Ranma left the question hanging.

"If you're referring to the fact he's dragging it with a rope and wearing pink rubber gloves then I can assure you I'm seeing the same thing."

"Oh good. I thought living in Nerima for a year might have turned me strange."

"See things like that often did you?

"Um not quite like that but I've seen some pretty strange things, in fact 'that' only just gets on my top twenty strangest things I ever saw."

"You've seen stranger? Hmmm, I wonder if that boy actually owns that Pikachu. It could be one reason for him having to restrain it like that."

"You serious? Then let's go, if that Pikachu needs rescuing then I'm the one to do it."

"Remember to use caution Ranma, he may have his own Pokemon."

"Yeah, yeah, did I tell you, you worry too much?" Ranma sprinted across the field in the direction the young boy had departed.

"It's part of my job description." It really is, a Pokedex is there to guide young children and teenagers through the wilds of Pokeworld and make sure they come through the experience whole and hearty.

"Hey you!! Stop!!" The boy in question turned at the shout from behind to see a young man approaching at high speed.

"Hi, I'm Ash from Pallet, and this is Pikachu." Ash gave a short lived smile as the stranger pulled up and spoke for the first time.

"I know it Pikachu, what don't know is why you drag it. You steal?"

"No!!!! This is my Pikachu; I just got him from Professor Oak." He thought about kneeling down and hugging the Pikachu to himself but had to admit he'd already had enough shocks for one day. I'm going on a Pokemon journey with Pikachu here. We haven't made friends yet though." He flipped open his Pokedex which introduced him and told them that the Pikachu had indeed been given to Ash as a starter Pokemon. "You don't trust me do you Pikachu?"

"Pika!" The yellow rodent shook its head emphatically.

"Not even a little?" The boy had a forlorn expression as the Pikachu again confirmed its opinion of him.

"Chu!"

" sigh At least you're not shocking me any more. Anyway who are you?" Ash flipped his caps brim as he nervously observed the muscled boy in front of him.

"Ranma Saotome. I from Crimson city." (1)

"Where's that, I think I've heard about it in geography."

"It in….Dex you speak me right yes?"

"Hello I'm Dex; I am registered to Pokemon trainer Ranma Saotome from Crimson city in the Johto region. I help him with knowledge of the Pokemon in this world."

"Whoa, you've got a Pokedex too! Are you a trainer?"

"Yes I'm a trainer, I came here to meet Professor Oak and start my own journey," Dex translated.

"But you're so old." It was disconcerting to hear Ranma speak in a different language and then to hear something totally different echo from the Pokedex but it didn't stop him from using the high art of 'Foot fu'.

"I've been looking after my sister since our parents passed away. Now she's gone on her journey I'm free to follow my dream."

"Cool, so what Pokemon do you have?"

"I've just got a Pikachu like you, and a Fearow. I caught them yesterday." He didn't mention any of the other Pokemon he now possessed thanks to Skye.

"How did you catch them if you didn't have a Pokemon before that?"

"Um, trust I think, plus I think Skye my Pikachu really wanted to come on an adventure." There was a muffled 'Pikachu!' from Ranma's pack. "I'd let you meet her, but she's a little indisposed at the moment." He barely restrained the urge to snicker.

"What happened?"

"She ran into a Caterpie, she didn't know anything about String shot and now I've got to get her to town to free her, I don't have a sharp enough knife, and I didn't want to risk hurting her by trying anything else. That silk is tough." Plus he was determined that Skye was going to learn from the experience, taking on half of the forest wasn't a good idea, and boredom definitely wasn't a good enough excuse. He pulled the pack off his back and pulled out what at first appeared to be a white stuffed animal, it was just over thirty seven centimeters tall and weighed eight kilograms. Ash jumped a little as it wriggled.

"PIKA!!"

"I told you, I can't get you out yet Skye. You'll have to wait till we get to town." He turned to face the young boy and his Pikachu who'd fallen on his back and was laughing its little yellow head off.

"That's…..unusual."

"Yeah well I thought she'd gone to hunt up breakfast. When I went to investigate this is what I found." Technically it was true, just not all of it. Maybe it was time to go before Ash asked him anymore questions. The other boy obviously hadn't stolen the Pikachu now that he got a good look at the two.

"I'm sorry about asking if you stole your Pikachu, but you've got to admit it looks kind of strange." He tried to ignore the fact that the Pikachu in question had walked over to Skye and was prodding her through the silk. "Anyway I'd better get going or I'll be even later to meet Professor Oak than I already am."

"Pikachu?" 'Are you alright?'

"PIKa!!!" 'Get lost laughing boy!!!!' Skye was totally unappreciative of being the butt of the joke, plus boys were icky except for her trainer.

"Pi pika pika kachu!" 'Well you don't have to be like that, you've got to admit it'd be funny if it weren't you.'

"Pika!" 'Get knotted!' At this point a thoroughly affronted Pikachu went back to Ash who'd just finished saying goodbye to Ranma. It seems Ranma isn't the only one to have problems with girls.

Ranma watched for a moment as the two departed, 'A boy and his Pikachu.' It was hard not to laugh, but then he wasn't one to speak after Skye's performance of the morning. Repacking his presently incarcerated Pikachu in the pack he shouldered it and turned towards the small rural town at the far end of the valley. From what he could see it looked like many of the farming communities in Hokkaido that he and his father had passed through on their training trip. Except for the fact the buildings were modern and of Western design. The town couldn't be populated by more than a few thousand people.

"So this is Pallet town huh?"

"Yes, though it's much smaller than I remember, but I suppose eight hundred years will do that."

As they walked through the nearly deserted streets of the town Ranma could feel the excitement in the air, there were streamers hung from the porches of houses all over, and in the distance someone was letting off fireworks.

"Must be some kind of festival going on. What do you think Dex?"

"If the date is what I suspect from meeting Ash then I'd say this is 'Trainers day', every year children as young as ten are allowed to apply to the local sponsor for a beginners permit to train Pokemon, they also receive a starter Pokemon for their journey. We'd better hurry Ranma, Professor Oak may leave the laboratory at any time to join in the festivities and then we won't see him till late tonight or tomorrow."

"Right, so where is this lab I'm supposed to find?"

"It's that building there, across the stream with the windmill attached. It's a privately owned but government funded facility that the Oak family started nearly a hundred years ago." Ranma sped up as he approached the grounds until he jogged across a small bridge, the building say on top of a small knoll, the garden was surrounded by a red-brick wall with large gateposts. Ranma hesitantly pushed the iron gate open and started up the steps. He jumped straight up as a sprinkler system turned on suddenly and was surprised that when he looked down to see where it was he could see a turtle spewing water at an incredible rate as it watered the lawn and shrubs. From this angle he could see quite a few of the small blue turtles.

"Squirtle!" The small water Pokemon shut off his water gun and looked up at the young man who was descending rapidly from the top of his thirty foot jump. Several others of his kind came over to look at the young man also, it wasn't everyday that they saw a human able to jump so high.

Ranma smiled as he touched down softly, 'Ha! I avoided the water.' He thought to himself. "So what are they? I heard one say squirtle or something like that."

"That's correct Ranma, most Pokemon are named for the call they make. Occasionally there are exceptions to this rule. This is Squirtle, it's a water type Pokemon, often used as a Pokemon trainers starter Pokemon."

"Cool, so what other Pokemon are used as starters?"

"Well in the Kanto and Johto regions there are three that are most common. Squirtle as I already mentioned. Bulbasaur, the grass type Pokemon I told you about yesterday. The last is Charmander, a fire type Pokemon. Ranked for power they would be Charmander first, Bulbasaur second and Squirtle as a third choice."

"Hey if that's the case why'd you say to take Bulbasaur?"

"Versatility Ranma. Charmander may eventually become Charizard and be the most powerful of them all, but it won't be as flexible in its attacks and its other abilities as Bulbasaur and as I mentioned Bulbasaur is both a grass and a poison type Pokemon. Also as Charmander evolves he becomes more temperamental and thus harder to control."

"Right, so do you think Professor Oak will give me a starter Pokemon?"

"He may, but I don't think it's necessary at this stage you already have a number of good specimen."

"Yeah tell me about it." Ranma sighed again, it wasn't like he'd set out to capture so many of them this morning, but he must still be a chaos magnet and so things happened that he couldn't foresee and any thought of control was a joke.

"Come on Ranma, don't feel bad about it. You're about to meet Professor Oak."

"Yeah I suppose. Alright let's get this over with." He walked up the remaining stairs with several sets of Squirtle eyes following him. When he reached the heavy oak door (What other kind of wood would it be?) and prepared to knock.

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Squirtle came around the corner of the building and spied the person standing at the door, its little face lit up for a moment thinking its owner had returned to collect it as it did with any visitor to the professor. Then it took a closer look and sighed as she realized this boy whoever he was, was too old to be its owner and started to turn away dejected yet again. A small pebble under its foot gave way and it lost his balance, flailing its arms around, it tried to regain its balance but only added momentum to the spin and landed in a heap. As is known a Squirtle on its back is vulnerable in the wild so they instinctively panic when it happens.

"SquIRTle!"

Ranma turned towards the yell just in time to see the downed Squirtle fire its Watergun attack almost straight up in surprise. He followed the graceful arc of water and then sighed in resignation. He really should have known better as the wave of cold water hit him full force with the expected results. Now the Squirtle that had been watching a young boy knock on Professor Oaks door really had something to talk about. Ranma was muttering to herself at the same time as she raised her fist to knock on the door, barely restraining her present urge to do damage to something she still managed to put a few dents in the wood.

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Professor Oak was having a really busy morning, especially in light of the television special he'd done the night before. Then early this morning his grandson and two others had descended on him to get their starter Pokemon. Then just as he thought he'd finished for the day Ash Ketchum had deigned to make an appearance dressed in his pajama's no less and asking for a starter Pokemon as well. He'd nearly refused as the boys' tardiness and manner of dress didn't reflect well on him but really didn't have the heart to refuse in the face of such enthusiasm. Now it looked like he could take a well earned breather before taking on his afternoon chores, and then there was that fascinating project about 'Variance in genetics of same species Pokemon' he'd been meaning to edit. And there was still the 'Trainers day' festival to attend.

Really it was getting to be a bit much, but what can a poor researcher do? 'Right, first things first, I need a nice cup of tea.' He made his way towards the kitchen…..

Knock-knock. Professor Oaks shoulders slumped in resignation as he sighed at yet another interruption. There went his lunch break. Turning back to the door that he'd only just managed to close he opened it to find an exasperated young girl dripping on his welcome mat. Her red hair was plastered to her face almost hiding the blue eyes that gazed at him, and he tried not to notice the way the silk shirt was plastered to her body, he really did. He found himself staring into her eyes determinedly, which raised the old man in her books. Most of the guys she knew would have ogled her shamelessly, even old man Tendo had been caught by surprise a few times, and of course the way she used to run around the compound didn't help at all.

"Yes can I help you young lady?"

"Um, er, I think so Professor." The professor was very surprised to say the least, the girl was speaking in a foreign language. It seemed that her Pokedex had a translation function built in though. It was eerie to hear her speak and a moment later to hear a dry male voice repeat it.

"I'm sorry, er, I don't even know your name." He raised an eyebrow inviting the young girl to introduce herself.

"Ranma Saotome, sorry about this." She shook her hand and watched as water droplets sprayed across the dark tiled floor.

"Ah Ranma, so what can I do to help? I'm having a rather busy day."

"Well I was hoping to be here yesterday but I got lost on the plains up there, then I ran into a Pikachu. Speaking of which, do you have a very sharp knife I could use to free Skye?"

"Well you'd better come in, I was about to make some tea. I can get you a towel at the same time."

Ranma looked up at the tall man and let her eyes go all wide and sparkly as she clasped her hands between her healthy bosom and gave her most kawaii attack, the one dreaded by ice-cream vendors the length and breadth of Tokyo. "Oooh Sensei!! I've wanted to meet you for so long. You're as nice as I thought you'd be!" An evil glint entered her eye as she glomped the professor as enthusiastically as Xian Pu would have. When she released the man he was decidedly soggy to the point he was holding his trousers away from his skin.

"Well it seems I'll have to get a towel for myself at the same time." He tried to sound dignified but after having just been treated to the much feared 'Fangirl' attack he wasn't having much luck. The fact that he was dripping water whilst dabbing at twin tendrils of blood that leaked from his nostrils certainly didn't help his dignity in any way. He straightened his jacket as he led Ranma deep into his home and laboratory.

Fifteen minutes later found Ranma sitting on a comfortable leather couch drying her unbound hair as Professor Oak, who'd changed his clothes was preparing tea for them.

"So you've come all the way from Crimson city to join the Indigo league? Why don't you tell me about that?" He hadn't started his search on transnet yet, plus he liked to form his own opinion of a person without dry data cluttering his mind. First impressions and all that.

"I came here for one reason only, I wanted to meet you."

"I'm flattered, but why me?"

"My father told me to always find the best sensei which was him in the martial arts," Slight exaggeration, "but when I started wanting to learn about Pokemon as well as our family art he started looking around the transnet to find out all he could about sponsors and teachers. He told me to look for either you or Professor Birch in Hoenn." She'd covered this earlier with Dex thinking about other possible trainers they could have approached if they hadn't have arrived so close to the Oak's family laboratory.

"Really, well Professor Birch really is a fine man, I'd have chosen him over anyone."

"Maybe, but I couldn't get to Hoenn, and besides I think I like this places facilities better. I saw some of it as I came down the valley and it's just what I hoped for."

"It is true that I have the best care facility in the Kanto region, with over a thousand hectares of land I can let the Pokemon out of their balls so they can get some exercise."

"That was the decider for me, I 'know' if I leave my Pokemon with you that they'll be well cared for." Professor Oak cleared his throat after being hit with another 'kawaii' attack, it really wasn't doing his blood pressure any good at all.

"Hmm, so what did your father have to say about you traveling so far?"

"My father passed away six months ago, but he told me to follow my dream then he said something strange. He said not to make the same mistakes he did, but he wouldn't tell me what the mistakes were."

"Oh and your mother?"

"She hasn't been around for a long time. Pops wouldn't talk about her at all, and my brother, he thought she left because of him, which is funny, because I always thought it was me. In the end Pops admitted that she said he cared more for training than he did for her. I haven't seen her since I was five, I think." Ranma let some of her own bitterness enter her voice as she spoke about her mother. Sometimes the truth is the most potent lie of all; she didn't even need to act. (3)

"That's sad to hear, how does your brother fit in. I believe you mentioned he felt to blame for your mother leaving as well?"

"Yeah, but he's alright now, he's been looking after me and Pops for so long that when Pops died I just couldn't stop him from going on his Pokemon journey. I'm glad, he looked after Pops and me for years, and now I think he's happy."

"That's good to hear. So you said you met Skye just yesterday?"

"Pikachu." Skye looked up from the glass of orangeade she was drinking from, the sweet drink hit the spot as the Pokemon hadn't been able to get a drink for more than hour. The bubbles were an added bonus as they tickled in her throat unlike anything she'd ever tasted before. In fact she was going to have more and promptly took Ranma's glass and started on that one as well.

"Hey that was mine Skye!"

"Pika?" Her ears flopped as she looked into the eyes of her trainer.

"Ah that's alright Skye. It's not a problem." She reached down and scratched Skye between the ears until the Pikachu grinned and went back to slurping the softdrink

"Are you sure you've only had her for a day? She seems awfully happy to be captured."

"Yeah, just the one day. I'm not sure why she's so happy, I think she really wanted to come with me though."

"Well Pokemon have just as many emotions as humans I find. So she's the bold, fearless explorer type is she?"

"You ain't got no idea Doc. Um, er, sorry about that, I just used to know someone like you and I always called him Doc."

"Don't worry about it Ranma, I take it as a compliment that you're able to relax this much with me. It's a good sign for our working together. Now what did you mean I've got 'no idea'?"

"Um, well it goes like this….." Ranma made some quick decisions about how much of the days events he'd tell the professor, after all one could give away too much, and in the case of Ranma and Nabiki, give and give and……

-Flashback-

Dex was deep in conversation with her trainer and had been for nearly an hour since her trainer had taken a leap off a hundred metre tall cliff and nearly scared everyone to death even if they had avoided that fate. After that the Fearow had been put in its place and things had settled back down somewhat. Now Skye was bored, bored and oh yes bored. There was nothing to do, and trees were boring after you'd seen a few of them and the ground was just that, plain as dirt. The sky was nothing new, and she came with her trainer to try different things. Skye got up and looked around carefully looking for something to do, and finally spotted movement a few metres away. Ah-ha, bug, big bug, and it had been so long since breakfast.

"PiIi!" 'Snacktime!' As she chased the scuttling bug into the under growth.

She became so intent on catching a meal that she didn't see the attack until it had struck her. The Raticate was more than double her size and outweighed her by a good fifteen kilos, so when it hit Skye with Hyper Fang she was sent sprawling in pain, the Raticate would have followed up the attack but found he'd been paralyzed by the static charge she carried in her fur.

"Raticate, RaT tICate!" 'Leave here, this is our territory!' The large mouse Pokemon forced the words out even though it was painful to move.

"Pika! piKA Chu!!" 'Hey! I'm walking here!!'(4) She staggered a little as she regained her feet and regarded the large brown rodent, its size didn't daunt her at all. No way was she going to back down, letting loose with a Thunderwave she reinforced the immobilizing power of her static and then hit it with Thundershock. Raticate was in trouble it wasn't going to take too many of those before it was out of action completely. It strained against the confinement and broke free only to be met with a Quick Attack plus Thundershock combination that picked the Raticate off its feet and slammed it back into one of the massive pines, the follow up Thundershock was unnecessary but made sure she wouldn't be attacked anymore, unfortunately there were more of them and the Rattata that were following their leader decided to attack. Attacking from different directions, Skye had to use Quick Attack to even get out of their way; the one that passed over her head landed in front of her after its attack failed and got the shock of its life and a badly smoking rump as she let loose another Thundershock.

She couldn't dodge the return of the other two and took damage from a Quick Attack, narrowly avoiding the others Hyper Fang. Pine needles went flying as she crashed into the undergrowth. Thinking they'd won they followed to make sure when the Thunder Shock came out of the bushes in a golden shaft of power that fried both of the remaining Rattata who dropped into unconsciousness joining the rest of their nest mates.

By this time the rest of the forest seemed to be aware that there was a new entrant into the territory game, this was a time for some to expand and others to contract their zone of influence on the limited food supply. Others would hardly be affected, those that lived in the trees had nothing to worry about but that didn't mean they couldn't watch. Several assorted Mankey(5) and a small flock of assorted Pidgey perched in the trees and watched as a limping Pikachu headed back towards her trainer.

Skye's great day went downhill rapidly, and unfortunately so did she, disoriented in her fight with the Raticate, her ears still ringing from the two Hyper Fang attacks she turned the wrong way and headed further into the forest.

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The Beedrill were busy collecting pollen and nectar for their hive (6) but were curious about the wandering yellow flower that entered their territory, until they got close enough to sense it wasn't a flower. In fact this particular 'flower' had more thorns than anything else at the moment and after the first fight she was going to fry things and then ask questions later, maybe. The Beedrill didn't know what hit them, some; the fortunate few were able to wobble away on unsteady wings, their flight made uncertain by having their antennae slightly charred. The one at the front fell from the sky the gossamer wings on its back useless as they crumpled due to dehydration as the electric attack passed through them on the way to the others they'd recover in time but the Beedrill would be in trouble if it were attacked in the meantime.

Skye dodged a Twin Needle attack and shot another Thundershock at the retreating Beedrill, which dodged as it caught sight of the attack using its huge compound eyes. The Mankey in the tree above it wasn't as lucky and fell from the tree twitching, smashing through several branches on its way down. The remaining Beedrill decided they'd get reinforcements and come back to teach the little rodent proper manners. The Mankey groaned as it sat up and then slumped back to the ground as it finally felt the full effect of the attack and the fall.

Skye was starting to get winded, sure she'd taken on long odds before but they'd usually come all at once like a flock of Spearow and she'd known they were there. The assorted Pidgey seeing the Mankey fall decided enough was enough and that this was no longer a spectator sport they flew away, they didn't need to be anywhere near the violent female.

The only witness to the end of the fight other than the participants was a Pidgeot that remained at the top of a tree, it could see the Pikachu was nearing the end of its endurance and was curious to see what happened next.

Pikachu looked up through bleary eyes at her next opponent, the Caterpie sweat-dropped as it realized this might not have been the best time to find a Leppa berry bush. The punch drunk Pikachu wobbled unsteadily and didn't even bother to ascertain if she was in danger or not before she started to charge up her cheek pouches ready to attack. Caterpie seeing its instant doom decided to String Shot the Pikachu in an attempt to avoid being fried, and managed to coat the electric rodent in silk just as Skye released her attack. Pidgeot in the tree above also saw the Caterpie and decided it was lunch time and swooped out of the tree. The bug Pokemon saw the bird coming and let out a cry.

"Ewheehheheee!" Which loosely translated means 'Oh shit! What'd I do to deserve this?" Almost simultaneously Skye released her attack with a loud whummpf as the Thundershock was shorted by the silk surrounding her and then through her body into the ground taking her last reserves as she took half damage from her own attack. The shock wave caught the Pidgeot unawares and caused the bird to slam into the ground at full speed only managing to clip the Caterpie with an outstretched wing. Being as Caterpie was so weak even that was enough to take it down and the Caterpie joined the rest of he unconscious Pokemon in the clearing.

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Back with Dex and Ranma who'd finished their conversation about the same time Skye finished with the Rattata, and were patiently waiting for the Pikachu to come back from her exploring when Ranma heard the muffled whummpf in the distance and decided to investigate just what his Pikachu was up to, Using all the trail skills he'd learned from living in Nerima for a year while being attacked by all comers he followed her trail easily. About a hundred metres in he found the first casualties.

"What do you make of this Dex?"

"Judging by the damage I'd say an electric type mouse went through here a couple of minutes ago."

"Yeah that's what I thought too, so what should I do, I mean I can't leave 'em like this."

"Well if I were you I'd do what a Pokemon trainer is supposed to do and capture them. This is what you have Skye for you know, though she's supposed to wait for you."

"But why would she attack other Pokemon like this, it don't make any sense?"

"Most Pokemon are extremely territorial, the one who controls the territory controls the food. So you see Skye may not have attacked them, they probably attacked her, and as they're normal type Pokemon they couldn't beat her ranged attacks." Ranma took three pokeballs out of his pack and captured two Rattata and the Raticate before looking for signs of Skye.

"Hmm, looks like another Pokemon dragged itself away over here." He pushed through the undergrowth making sure not to startle the Pokemon if he came upon it. "Oh crud! This can't be good." The Rattata was in bad shape, suffering numerous burns to its body.

"I'd suggest the use of nanites to repair the damage Ranma, but we'd better be quick." Ranma didn't waste any time in pokeballing the Pokemon and inserting it into Dex so he could release nanites into the ball. "There that should do it; I'll just monitor the situation. It shouldn't take too long to fix this."

"I found Skye's trail Dex, looks like every third step is a little lighter than the others. I'd say the rats weren't the only ones to take damage."

"Rats? They're called Raticate and Rattata, they are not rats."

"One thing I learned Dex, if it looks like a rat and acts like a rat then it probably is a rat."

"I dare you to say that to Skye."

"Um, no dare, what do I look stupid?"

"One thing I've learned Ranma….."

"Yeah yeah, lap it up laughing boy."

"Coward."

"Hey no fair, erm Dex we may have a problem."

"I see, Pikachu's last stand. Don't forget the Mankey behind that bush over there."

"Huh, oh yeah I see it. You're gonna have to tell me what we're going to do with all these Pokemon when we get some time."

"You're going to train them to be stronger than they already are and then you're going to follow the dream of Pokemon trainers everywhere."

"But how long will that take, the Doctor said I'd only be here a couple of years."

"And you believed him? Let me tell you what he said to me before putting me in storage. He said, 'Don't worry Dex, it's only for a short time, then I'll return you to Pokeworld.' As you can see he kept his word, I'm back on Pokeworld it just took a lot longer than he said. I'd prepare to spend the rest of your life here if I were you."

"No way, he told me…."

"Oh I'm sure he didn't lie, but he's ever so forgetful. In fact if you hadn't needed rescuing I'd still be in storage; so in a way I'm grateful, and ever so sorry."

Ranma finished rounding up the Pokemon and tucked Skye under his arm before heading back to the rest of his gear. He didn't like the sound of what the pokedex had told him but he couldn't get it out of his head. It was an adventure, just like all the others he'd faced, he was supposed to learn some great lesson and then return to show off the fruits of his labour, not be trapped in another world where nothing he accomplished meant anything.

"I ain't givin' up ya know. This ain't gonna beat me, I'll be here when he returns and if he isn't here in a couple a years I'll kick his sorry ass."

"That's the spirit Ranma, and if you wouldn't mind you could kick it a time or two for me. In the meantime you've got a whole new world to explore. So let's get busy."

"Sounds like a plan. Let's hit Pallet town."

-End Flashback-(7)

"I see, so you in fact have a number of Pokemon already. That's highly impressive, I do so hope Ash Ketchum does as well with his Pikachu."

"You mean that boy that was dragging his Pikachu."

"Oh you met him? Yes that's a sad story, Pikachu didn't like being captured, I mean he really didn't like being captured. The trouble was he was injured so badly, not as badly as the man who ran him over though. They had to cut him out of his car."

"What? You're telling me a Pikachu could do that much damage to a car?"

"It wasn't the impact that did the damage it was the fact that Pikachu's electric attack spot-welded the cars metal parts together, then the engine and gearbox exploded due to torque. It took a long time for Pikachu to recover from the damage and when he did he was very angry. When Ash was late for his starter Pokemon I took the chance to get Pikachu back out into the world where he belongs. I hope Ash can teach him that not all humans are like the man in the car was."

"Oh yeah, that looked like it was going real well."

"I had to do it Ranma, I can't keep Pokemon here indefinitely without a trainer, they have to be released to the wild or to a Pokemon trainer and Pikachu had been here too long to be released back into the wild. The problem was no one wanted poor Pikachu, and as time passed he got became despondent until he got even angrier. I don't have any regrets about giving him to Ash though; I don't know what it was; I just felt good about those two together. I think they've got a bright future. From what you've told me I'd say you've got one as well."

"We'll see, I certainly don't intend to be quiet and sedate. They're gonna know I'm in the world when I hit the Indigo League."

"That's the spirit, now the problem is you're only allowed to take six Pokemon with you. You can swap them around at any time, but you'd better choose wisely for the first leg of your journey."

"Does that mean you're gonna take me on?"

"Well I just have to check a few things, like your school records and the like and then I can answer that question. Come with me Ranma, we'll just access my computer and see." Professor Oak led the way to his Transnet terminal(8) and took a seat.

"Hold up Doc I just need to use the bathroom. Can you wait for me?

"Of course, don't be too long though, I'd really like to make it to the festival."

"Yeah I'd like to see that as well." As the day progressed Dex was finding that Ranma spoke more and more English words, he was only having to cover for complex ideas at the moment. In fact the machine was surprised that a human could pick something up so fast. As Ranma headed for the bathroom he pulled Dex out of his pocket.

"So did you get it done?"

"Of course I did Ranma, I had it done a few seconds after you sat down to talk to Professor Oak."

"That's good I'd hate to have him pull up my files and find nothing." Ranma sat down for a moment and waited. "So where do I go from here."

"We'll have to wait and see what the Professor says. I'd suggest going North towards Chep town or maybe south towards Loscam (9). Before heading for Pewter city and the first Pokemon Gym."

"Yeah I suppose I'll need time to train my Pokemon, right lets head back and find out what my education was like." Ranma smirked because it was likely to have results like he'd never have seen on his own world.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Professor Oak looked up from the screen and watched as the diminutive red-head returned to the front-room.

"Ah there you are, I'll just finish this and then we'll have a look at your bio." He punched a few keys to save his work and then some more to bring up the records he needed to see. "This is good Ranma, I always like to see someone take their education seriously. You never know when you'll need it. Yes I think I can take you on, if you'll plug your pokedex in I'll just download all the pertinent information. Now remember your pokedex has a number of features that you can make use of."

"Thanks professor." Ranma glomped him again for good measure, after all there weren't many people he knew that would do something for him without asking for even more in return.

"You're quite welcome. Then all we have to do is get you a starter Pokemon."

"Er, I don't need one professor; I've already got my own."

"Yes, yes, I meant to ask you about that. So what do you have?"

"Um let's see, there's the three Rattata, one Raticate a Mankey, several Beedrill a Pidgeot and a Caterpie. So with Skye and Feather Duster all up I've got nearly fifteen Pokemon, I don't need another one at the moment. I don't know what to do with the ones I've got as it is."

"I see, that's quite a good mix you have there. Though it'll be hard to get your first badge, you see it's the Rock badge and the gym leader uses only rock and ground type Pokemon. To really stand a good chance you'd need a water type to weaken them and that's what I planned to give you."

"Nah that sounds too much like cheatin ta me, I wanna do it my way."

"Well Ranma it's good that you have the drive to make it on your own. While it's your choice on how to battle I'd still suggest you take the water type Pokemon anyway. You never know when it'll come in handy. Stay here for a moment and I'll go get her." After that Professor Oak didn't give her a chance to protest and walked from the room closing the door behind him.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

"What do you think Dex?"

"Well it would be the easiest way to get the gym badge, and it's always a good idea to have a good mix of Pokemon types. The other thing is you really can't refuse, he's your sponsor now and he's giving you a gift." Ranma hung her head for a moment in thought.

"Yeah, I guess you're right, that means I've gotta choose the other four Pokemon to take along."

"Well we should take at least one of the Beedrills; though I think I'll unlock the ID tag on the ball so we can hide it. That Beedrill took too much damage to leave it here with the professor, and it won't be of any use in battle for at least a month, maybe more. Fearow still needs training, Skye is an obvious choice. So what does that leave?"

"You're right, I ain't goin' anywhere without Skye an' it wouldn't be fair to leave Feather Duster here. Hmmm, well I want the Mankey and maybe one of the Rattata." Skye looked up at her trainer inordinately pleased that he considered her indispensable.

"Why not take the Raticate? It's the stronger of the two types." The small handheld computer sounded doubtful.

"Well yeah, it's the stronger of the two. Even I can see that. The thing is I want to train the Rattata from the start and see how strong that makes Raticate when it evolves."

"Makes sense in the long term I suppose. Okay so you've got four of them together what about the last one?"

"Oh that's easy, I'm gonna take Caterpie, look how easy it took out Skye."

"PIKACHU!" This is unprintable, nope definitely unprintable. Let's just say that she's no lady.

"Sorry Skye but you took it on and it beat you. You can't argue with that."

"PiKA Pi ka pi." 'But I didn't know what it was.'

"Now maybe you didn't know what it was and weren't prepared for it or….I don't know, but the simple fact is you were beaten by a Caterpie. I'd like to know why, Caterpie are much weaker than you are." Dex spoke as if Skye hadn't said anything to him, which is true if you consider the language barrier.

"Something the 'Anything Goes' style is famous for, making others underestimate us. Oh hi professor." Ranma turned to the doorway in time to see the older man walk back in the room, followed by another of the blue turtles she'd seen outside.

Professor Oak closed the door quietly as he led a Pokemon into the room. "Ranma I'd like you to meet Squirtle. Squirtle, Ranma here will be your new trainer."

"Squirtle?" 'For real?' The small turtles eyes lit up and she started to run towards her new trainer only to trip on the edge of the floor rug. When she belly flopped on the floor she let loose a torrent of water that picked Ranma up and slammed her back into the bookshelves that lined part of the room.

"Not again! Damn it Professor I only just got dried out from the last time." As she said it something twigged in the back of her mind. "It was you! Last time, out there in the garden, you're the one who tripped and soaked me. Aren't you?" Squirtle looked up and nodded sadly before turning dejectedly to leave the room. Rejected again.

"Hey and where do you think you're going? IF I'm gonna be your trainer we're gonna have to work on that clumsiness of yours." An incredulous expression crossed Squirtles face as she turned back and looked into her new trainers blue eyes. Excitement overcame her better judgment and she started to run to hug Ranma again. "Ah-ah, no running Squirtle, we've gotta teach you how to walk first." Ranma crouched down to meet the Squirtle.

"SqUirtLE!" The water Pokemon was too happy at finally having a trainer again that she didn't mind what ever Ranma wanted to say to her.

"Well I can see that this is going to work out just fine, I'll just finalize your registration in the Kanto Pokemon Association as a beginning Pokemon trainer and explain a few things to you." Professor Oak turned back to the screen and punched up a new page and started typing, punching a final button with a flourish the older man turned back in his swivel chair and stood up. "There you go, all done. Now it's a little late for me to start on my afternoon research so why don't I escort you to the festival and we can talk on the way. Here I'll take that for you, I don't know how you managed to carry such a large pack all the way he-ergh!" He strained as he attempted to pick up the pack.

"That's alright Doc, I'm used to it. It's part of my training in fact." Thinking fast she said. "Don't feel too bad, there's like ten kilos of supplies in there and another hundred kilos in weights plus my clothes. It makes for great strength and stamina training."

"Oh yes, that would be rather effective wouldn't it." He closed the door to his lab as he led the way out of the compound. "Alright, the first thing you need to do to gain your full trainers license is to gain eight gym badges. The nearest gym is a rock type in Pewter city, and the person you need to speak to is Brock, he's the current Gym leader."

"Yeah I heard about that place, um so I just go in and challenge Brock?" Ranma thought back to the discussion he'd had with Dex earlier that morning.

"That's correct Ranma, he'll specify the standard league rules. I'm sure you'll find out that the battlefield at each Gym will favour the Gym leaders Pokemon, but other than that you should do fine. If not you can always re-challenge as soon as your Pokemon have recovered. Now second batch of information, you may challenge or be challenged by anyone who has a Pokemon, whether they're a licensed Pokemon trainer or not Most will specify that league rules apply, though they may stipulate any kind of rules as long as you agree. It is illegal to profit from these Pokemon battles, anyone caught gambling on the outcome may have their Pokemon taken away from them, in addition licensed trainers will receive a two year ban on entering official Pokemon tournaments and they'll find themselves on probation, meaning any infraction against league rules will cost them their license. Repeated offences are penalized to the full extent of the law, and may carry prison sentences from no less than fifteen years to multiple life sentences"

"Okay, I can live with that, the thought of making money off the pain of my Pokemon don't make me very happy an it won't make anyone who offers me a bet very happy either." Ranma cracked her knuckles to add emphasis to her statement.

"Good, I think that covers most any situation you might meet up with. So how are you doing for supplies?"

"I'm going to have to buy some more for me and the Pokemon. Do you know where I can get some around here?"

"Yes I'll introduce you to Peter before we go on to the festival." Ranma noticed that the streamers were getting thicker as they got closer to the centre of town, and up ahead was a large number of stalls which masses of people thronged around checking out the merchandise on offer. Games of chance and physical skill were all over the impromptu market place. The children running all over the place and the loud music announced to anyone who hadn't already guessed that this was a festival and not market day.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Ranma left her pack in Officer Jenny's police booth once she'd bought all the supplies she'd need for the trek to the next town. She'd been thinking about the money Dex had created for her and didn't like it one bit. Sitting up in a tree before they went off to look at the festival Ranma decided to broach the subject and make sure Dex didn't get them all in trouble.

"Dex we aren't gonna do that very often are we? It's illegal an' I don't wanna be like Pops."

"I know Ranma, the problem is we needed immediate funds for the supplies, Professor Oak wouldn't have allowed us to depart if we didn't have money. Also it would be impossible to get supplies on credit given your youth. I don't particularly like it either, but it was expedient for me to do so. I only created a couple of hundred dollars in your account. Now if you don't like it I suggest you find another way to make money."

"Right! So let's think, who's gonna hire a girl who looks like she's only twelve or thirteen? Don't bother answerin' that cause I already know it. So I could supply something others need, but I ain't got the foggiest what that could be. You said that cloth maker thing could make me some money but we don't have any raw materials for it."

"Actually we do Ranma, Caterpie is a good source of silk for it, in fact a single Caterpie can produce enough String Shot in one day to produce a metre of high quality raw silk, or a few hundred metres of silk thread. With the addition of coloured dyes you could sell skeins of embroidery thread at fairs and markets like this."

"That sounds a lot better than stealing. So we're gonna go down there and get some dyes. We could also enter some of the competitions they have at festivals?"

Ranma dropped from the tree and headed off towards the fair carrying nothing but her pokeballs, Skye trotting a few paces behind her. "You ready to explore the festival Skye?"

"Pi!"

"Great, just remember don't shock anyone unless I say so okay?"

"Pi?" 'Who me? Skye cocked her head to one side in an innocent look that he wasn't buying for one second. He'd been around too many violent women in his time to doubt her capability to inflict pain on people she deemed deserving. She just gave him the 'look' before trotting off to explore a little of the market before he thought to tell her to stay with him. Of course a rodent that's only a foot tall doesn't tend to see very much other than the legs of passersby. A strong sense of smell on the other hand was a very handy thing to have; it led her straight to the first food stall where the vendor became the day's first recipient of the Pikachu cute attack.

Ranma shrugged as his new friend disappeared into the crowd of people, he'd catch up with her later he supposed or visa versa. Looking around for a particular kind of booth was pretty easy, their were only about eighty vendors for the few thousand residents of Pallet and the surrounding area. He quickly demolished the guy running the 'Pea shuffle' game as his hands weren't quicker than her eye and she saw him try to palm the 'Pea', he'd very quietly paid her the winnings she would have won and watched her disappear back into the crowd, sighing to himself he played a straight table for most of the rest of the afternoon. The giant running the arm wrestle nearly rolled out of his seat laughing at her when she asked to compete, that is until she asked if he was too weak to take on a little girl. The man did roll out of his chair as Ranma rammed the back of his hand into the table so fast it almost blurred. He lost a little money there but made it all back as the spectators rushed to fleece the obviously weak man.

The next stall Ranma discovered turned out to be the one he needed to buy dyes and stuff, he also got a fair idea of value for her proposed merchandise asking Dex to take note of the prices and stuff.

"Right, I wonder where I should go next?" The noise was starting to give her a headache, 'it might be time to leave.' She thought to herself then dismissed the idea. It was still a little early.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Skye in the meantime was sitting back and watching the people pass by as she patted her stuffed belly, when the cute attack failed on the vendor she could usually find a customer who'd buy something for the cute little Pikachu. She'd paused a couple of times during the afternoon to see if she could find Ranma but had chosen not to join her trainer on the one occasion she'd noted his presence. She was enjoying herself too much as she explored a totally alien world to her normal experience.

"PiKA! Ka PIKa pi." Skye looked up in time to see a couple walk by, she didn't know that much about humans but there was something about them that drew her attention, and being the adventurous type she decided to follow them. After all she was full and she'd already seen everything that the small fair had to offer. Neither of the two seemed to notice the small yellow Pokemon as it followed them towards their destination.

Ranma replies too easily here I know, the thing is most people may understand more of a language than they speak. The hesitation in their replies isn't necessarily a lack of understanding but in quickly being able to formulate a reply in a new language. A simple question such as "Who are you?" is easily answered because names don't change.

The basic 'cute' attack, the 'puppy eyes' attack utilizes only the eyes and maybe a pout all depending on the desired intensity. The 'kawaii' attack, or second stage brings online other pertinent assets, drawing attention by clasping or wringing hands together over the pertinent area(breasts for those who're curious). The third and final stage is the 'Fangirl' attack which adds the glomp into the mix, this attack has been known to leave victims unconscious due to pure saccharine overdose, and has nothing to do with induced blood loss due to the victims hentai thoughts.

At this time Ranma hasn't been reunited with his mother in canon, and his father has left him to form his own opinion of his mother. Seeing all the happy families with a mother could lead a lonely child to make some really bad conclusions about this situation.

Pikachu with a New York attitude.

When I say assorted and use the lowest evolution of a species like this I'm trying to say that there are different evolutions of that species. So assorted Mankey means there are Primeape there also, assorted Pidgey means there might be Pidgey, Pidgeotto, and\or Pidgeot.

I'll call it a hive for the simple fact they're basically bees or wasps and as such their group name should reflect that.

Of course he edited out all the bits about being from a different world and the conversations with Dex.

Transnet is the Pokeworld equivalent of the internet, it uses the Transporter network as a carrier signal.

Chep and Loscam are types of wooden pallet as in Pallet town, it's a joke and they don't really exist in the Pokemon world. I thought I'd keep the naming convention of some of the other Pokemon worlds regions such as naming towns and cities after colours.


	4. Chapter 4

Who's a Pokemon master?

Chapter 4

Disclaimer:- Ours is not to question why I don't own this, Oh I could cry. I wouldn't even dream to try, the lawyers work my hide to fry.

Ah well I'm not a poet and ….. no I'm not gonna say that. Pokemon and Ranma ½ belong to their respective owners. 'Duh!'

/ Ranma \

Ranma moaned in pleasure as she wrapped her lips around the end of the chili hotdog and bit down causing sauce to ooze out of the far end. Her nimble fingers scooped it up and returned it to her mouth as she slid said fingers into her mouth sucking and licking any excess off her fingers in the process. Ranma didn't notice the number of young men she left behind her holding their noses at the sensual scene as the young appearing woman headed for a secluded spot near a tree she'd seen earlier.

"Hey Dex?" she said quietly, hardly even moving her lips.

"Yes Ranma?"

"I can't believe how good these things are."

"I wouldn't know, I seem to lack the required apparatus to make an informative statement in regards to its flavour."

"Huh?" Ranma paused for a moment to work her way through that last statement before saying, "Then take my word for it, these are real good."

"Duly noted. Ranma we have currently been at this gathering for one hour and seventeen minutes."

"Yeah, so? I'm still looking for information on prices of stuff we might be able to sell later."

"Then we may as well leave now, I have all relevant data on prices and such at this market."

"How'd ya manage that? I ain't even seen most of the stalls yet."

"True, but most of the stalls that sell items that we could conceivably make have Pokepay terminals. These allow me to access their sales computers and find out the information we needed. Also the marked prices would have done us no good as they change from location to location to reflect the local availability of goods. Taking that into account with the location of certain sites I would like you to visit I have planned a route to the first gym for us to maximize sales and training potential."

"Alright what the hells Pokepay?" Ranma asked totally ignoring the rest of what the handheld machine had said.

'Do you remember when you bought that chilidog; that the man behind the counter asked you to insert me into that slot?"

"Yeah."

"That was a Pokepay terminal. It basically accesses your personal funds and allows the proprietor to take out the money owed him. The screen on the terminal shows how much is owed and for what, it then generates a complex key that tells your Pokedex how much is to be taken out, that way the system can't be subverted to take more than it is supposed to."

"So it's like an automatic teller machine that uses my Pokedex as a keycard?"

"Exactly, you should also have a pin number for that purpose. I protected you this time but we will set up normal security measures once we're on the road okay?"

"Cool. You ain't led me wrong so far, so where are we going from here?"

"I figure if we head north towards Chep we'll make better time, there's also a few different types of Pokemon out that way that should prove interesting for you."

"There's another reason ain't there?" Suspicion of ulterior motives had almost become second nature for Ranma over the time he'd spent in Nerima.

"Well yes, to the north of Chep there's a small canyon that wends its way into the Northern mountain ranges and to one of the 'places' I told you about. We can pick up evolution stones from there. Also there are a few rare Pokemon that live nearby that take advantage of the evolution stones."

"Like?" 

"Well Evee for one, and Vulpix have been known to travel hundreds of miles to use the site as well. Evee is the one we want though as they can evolve into seven different forms. Five of which rely on the stone you use to evolve them."

"So that means I need to catch at least seven of them right?" Ranma winced as he thought of having to train even more Pokemon.

"No I don't think so, not yet anyway. I was thinking more along the lines of evolving Evee with a fire stone so that you'd have a Flareon, or we could evolve it into an Espeon to give you a psychic type Pokemon. That is if we don't find any other type of psychic Pokemon on the way."

"So Flareon, that'd be a fire type yeah?" 

"M-hmmm. That's correct, as I've said before it's always a good idea to have a good mix of Pokemon so that you can switch out types that are weak against a known opponent. Of course that can backfire as your opponents will try the same thing with you. This is the main reason the Pokemon must be equally trained and as strong as possible."

"Yeah well I can train them to be strong, endurance won't be a problem and neither will speed. The thing that worries me is I'm not sure how to train all these special attacks. I mean look at Skye, she's got these electric attacks thingy's, how am I supposed to help her develop those?"

"Well there are a couple of ways but again we're getting ahead of ourselves. The three points you mentioned will suffice for quite sometime and I believe that will take care of their special attacks as there is a direct correlation between physical condition and the strength of their special attacks, so the stronger, faster and more durable they are the stronger they'll be in other areas."

"Well that's good ta know." Ranma paused for a second as something she'd said earlier flickered through his mind, "Come to think of it, where is Skye? I haven't seen her for ages now."

"I couldn't tell you as I have not seen her either."

"Right, well if we want to leave while it's still light I suppose I'd better go and find her," as she pushed to her feet and gathered her purchases.

"Can you not use your ki senses to find her?" Dex asked suddenly. They'd covered many different subjects as they'd traveled through the forest and some of Ranma's more esoteric skills had come up in the midst of that conversation.

"If I knew her better maybe, but there're just too many people around."

"You've known her for nearly two days, and been in constant contact with her, isn't that enough?"

"Let me put it in different terms then. There's something like two thousand people here, give or take a couple' a hundred, there's a couple of hundred of ya normal garden variety animals. An to top that off there's probably several hundred Pokemon out there right now. Add in the fact that none of them are standing still and it gets even more difficult. It'd be quicker to search with my eyes than do it with ki senses, plus it'd give me one hell of a headache." Ranma crossed her arms over her chest as she regarded the little black box she had yet to pick up.

"If that's the case I suppose we have only three options. The first is to wander the fair aimlessly searching," the young red-head shook her head to that idea.

"Nah, ain't my style."

"I didn't think so. The next is to wait for a crowd of running, screaming people and follow it back to the source, or," Dex ploughed on before Ranma could protest, "we could head for the nearest explosion."

"Oh come on Dex she ain't…." KA-BOOOOOOMMMMM!!!!! "….that bad?" she finished lamely. Off in the distance a small mushroom cloud of black smoke and billowing flame rose into the sky. "Ah shit! This is your fault Dex!" as she scooped the last of her stuff up and bolted in the direction of the explosion.

"Me? What did I do?" 

"Ya just had to go an say something like that," Ranma sidestepped a small group of children as they exited their ride to see what was going on, then jumped a concerned group of adults doing the same thing and ran smack into Professor Oak as he started running towards the same destination as Ranma, after all his Pokemon research station was over that way.

/ Skye \

Ranma's Pikachu was currently ghosting behind the pair she'd spotted earlier. She couldn't quite put her claw on it but something didn't seem right about them, as if they didn't fit in. Pikachu for one are known for their psychic ability, or at least their complete lack thereof, so Skye had to rely on her well honed ability to read body language. The body language of these two said they were predators and that they were hunting.

"PiKa," 'sneak', "PiKa," "sneak', "PiKa," 'sneak', Skye whispered after every other step as she slunk bell down to the ground, which admittedly isn't all that hard when you consider that most Pikachu have a cute little paunch which made them look like Buddha when they sat up on their hind legs. Her tail stretched out behind her parallel to the ground and kept her balance as she tiptoed across the path unseen. All in all her stealth techniques were flawless with one glaring over-sight, the fact that she was bright yellow caused all of her precautions to be useless as everyone stopped to watch the obviously deranged Pikachu sidle by muttering to itself.

On a scale of things stealthy it has been noted in research documents that Pikachu rank in the bottom ten percent along with a number of the legendary Pokemon. Simply for the fact that they don't blend in with any kind of environment, or as Professor Birch was once noted saying rather bluntly, "They stand out like dogs bollocks." This is no fault of the creature in question, it is simply a reflection on their strength. A weak Pokemon needs to hide. On the other hand the strong tend to like standing out so they can attract fights. Pikachu fall into a special sub-category, they like to fight but the simple fact is that their colouring is a calculated bluff that makes many leave them alone before they know how strong a Pikachu actually is. Back to the pursuit.

/ Team Rocket \

"Cassidy?"

"Yes?"

"Don't look around but I think we're being followed," Butch stage whispered to her partner, "I said don't look!"

"Why not? There's nothing back there, though I can't believe I missed that totally cute stuffed Pikachu on the doll stand back there."

"Stop that, we don't have time for you to collect cute things at the moment." Butch raised her eyebrow as she caught sight of the yellow stuffed toy. It was amazing how lifelike it actually looked as it sat there. It seemed to be looking straight at them as it stuck its tongue out and gave the passersby the red eye. You could almost hear it blowing raspberries at you. Then she looked at the short man beside her and sighed, 'there's no accounting for taste.' She thought, even though she found it to be saccharine sweet as well.

"Alright, but I'm telling you if it's gone when we come back I'm gonna let you know just how I feel about it." The duo turned back around and continued on their way to their designated target.

/ Skye \

Skye let out a sigh of relief at being undiscovered and then sweatdropped as the nearby demand caught up with her.

"Momma! Momma! I want that stuffed Pikachu, looking out of the corner of her eye she found she was suddenly the centre of attention for at least twenty pairs of eyes that belonged to people who answered to the name of 'Momma!' in that particular tone. Rather than stick around for the aftermath Skye quick attacked her way out of the area and caught up with her targets within a few seconds leaving the quickly gathering crowd behind her and a stall holder who suddenly had a gleam in his eye.

Back with Skye, "PiKa," 'sneak', "PiKa," 'sneak', Pikachu continued her tailing operation.

/ Team Rocket \

Butch spun around on her heel. That feeling of being followed was getting creepy. When she looked back there was still no one who looked like they were paying particular interest in the two clandestine members of Team Rocket.

"What's got you so jumpy? You're like a Meowth on a hot tin roof."

"Shhh! I know we're being followed."

Cassidy looked back as well and saw a flash of bright yellow a little further down the stalls. "Hold on I just want to check something." Walking back down the aisles he was surprised to find another of those unbearably cute Pikachu stuffed animals. Must be really expensive though, look at the detail in that fur, and the eyes, looked almost like they were alive. The pose was a bit overdone in his expert opinion but all in all it would be well worth adding to his plushie collection.

"How much for the Pikachu doll?" He asked.

The stall vendor looked at his wares and wondered where that one had come from and then shrugged. 'Who am I to argue with good luck, and the man 'wants' the Pikachu. Hmmm, good workmanship, excellent quality, no visible seams.' Pulling a figure off the top of his head.

"A hundred and fifty Pokedollars young man and the Pikachu is yours."

"A hundred and fifty! You gotta be kidding!" 

"No siree that there is a fine piece of the craft of plushie making. Don't come across work like that everyday no siree! Hundred and forty five's my best offer! Tale it or leave it?"

Cassidy grumbled for a minute as he counted the notes in his wallet. "Hey Butch lend us a tenner till pay day?" He turned a charming smile on his partner, at least as charming as his face could possibly get for something that resembled a slab of rough hewn rock with a couple of broken teeth.

"For that?" 

"Ah come on! It ain't like I didn't loan you money when you wanted that mini."

"That was totally different, that was fashion. This is a puerile toy of a posed Pikachu flipping the bird."

"That's the point, it's like rare as Pidgey teeth."

"Pidgey don't have teeth moron."

"Exactly," he crowed triumphantly before turning back to the vendor and asking, "Sure you can't go any lower on that price?" But the vendor knew a hooked customer when he saw one and got a sly expression.

"I'm sorry but that's the best I can do. One hundred and forty-seven and that's cutting me own throat."

Cassidy swore as he turned back to his partner smiling widely as he said, "Ah come on! Pretty please, with cream and sugar and a cherry on top?" Now it should be noted that the 'Ultra cute' attack fails miserably in its intent when used by a man who's head looks like it was used as the puck in an ice hockey game. The only reason it worked this time is that Butch couldn't stomach the expression anymore, in the sense that she was about to throw-up.

"Alright, alright already. Jeez here take it!" Emptying her pockets she handed over thirty dollars and some change before bolting in the opposite direction looking for a trash can. Cassidy gloated as he handed over the money and received his three dollars change.

The vendor smiled a big toothy grin as the man accepted the three dollars and picked up the stuffed animal. Why the Pikachu had remained stationary as he sold it he didn't know but he wasn't going to question such good luck as he pocketed the hundred and sixty two dollars the strange little man had given him. He did wonder for a moment whose Pokemon he'd just sold but dismissed it as none of his concern, plus when he left tomorrow morning there'd be no proof he'd sold it. He just prayed that Officer Jenny never figured it out.

/ Skye \

Skye looked out of the flap on the mans small back pack, it'd been a tight fit when she'd been shoved in, and she wasn't ready to forgive the comment about how lifelike she was in the weight department either, but all in all this was a much better way to trail the two. As an added bonus she couldn't lose them in the crowd. As the crowd thinned her current traveling partners began to speak more freely and she blinked as it became apparent that she'd been right about the odd couple.

"You know you wasted that money don't you?" 

"Nah, I got what I wanted. It could have been gone by time I got back there, and I mean it ain't like I'm gonna let him keep the money. We'll be waiting for him when he leaves Pallet town tomorrow morning wont we Mikado?"

"You imbecile! I've told you not to use my real name when we're in public like this." Butch yelled

Cassidy or the career criminal better known to his parents as Azusa Shiritori mumbled through the hand over his mouth and waited for his partner to relent.

"Ah come on, what public? They're all back there at the fair. Ain't anyone here but us Team Rocket types." He batted his eyelashes as he chuckled at his own joke, a move that went down as well as the 'Ultra cute' attack.

"Oh Puhleaze. As if that'd work on me. You do have a point though, we do seem to be alone for the moment. So what's the plan? Oh and release your Pokemon, they might as well all hear the plan, Raticate, Graveler, Houndour I choose you!" A beam of red energy lanced out from three separate Pokeballs and coalesced into the Pokemon she'd named. The Raticate's bucked teeth glinted in the afternoon sunlight, surrounded by brown fur, the imposing mouse Pokemon stood at just over two feet in heigh. Graveler looked more like a boulder with two sets of arms and a craggy face, it was larger than its ratlike team mate by over a foot but weighed nearly six times as much being as it weighed close to two hundred and thirty pounds with the rock armour it carried. Houndour looked like a Rottweiller, except for the metal protrusions that covered its body like armour and the fact it was only half the size. Butch surveyed her Pokemon and smiled at the formidable array of power. Pity that Houndour hadn't evolved into Houndoom yet, now that was a useful Pokemon.

Cassidy looked on for a moment before calling out his own, Pidgey sat there and called out a few times as it settled its feathers along the crest of its head. Hitmontop was next in his lineup, he'd got it as a Tyrogue when it was all cute. Pity it hadn't stayed in that form but ah well, Raymone was always a little feisty like that. Last in his lineup and the pride of his collection was the Sableye Amie, the fact it was a dark\ghost type freaked him out as being too scary but he'd live with that as long as it was the most powerful Pokemon he possessed, just like the Sableye would live with the fact his owner had given him a girls name.

"We enter just like we got business with the Professor, cause we know he's making a speech at the moment. We gotta use Sableye to get past those Squirtle he's got in the garden once they realize we do mean harm that is." He let out a rumbling chuckle before continuing. "Once they're down we head for the south wall and I make like the big bad wolf and use some of the C4 I brought with me to blow the Professors house down." He took his pack off pulled Skye out of the bag and placed her to one side before reaching back inside to pull out a few of the small bombs he'd.

"You're not going to blow the house down! The boss wouldn't like it if we failed like those two incompetents always do."

"Ah come on, it was just a joke. I'm only gonna take out the wall into the Pokemon storage facility. While our Pokemon keep anybody from checking out the explosion you steal as many of the Pokemon as you can. I'll take the safe, the plans the boss wants should be inside it." He'd learned his lesson the last time he'd stolen a safe for the boss. The boss gets what's in the safe and then Cassidy could name the damn thing anything he damn well pleased and keep it.

"When we return successful we'll be rewarded by Giovani, unlike certain people I could mention. Right is everyone clear on the plan."

"Raticate!"

"Graveler."

"Houndour."

"Pidgey."

"Hitmontop!"

"Sableye."

"Pikachu."

Butch looked at her partner, "Pikachu?"

"Hey don't look at me I ain't got a Pikachu!" Cassidy and Butch looked around frantically as they tried to figure out where the last call had come from turning around he found the stuffed Pikachu leering at him with a manic grin on its face just before she threw a Thundershock at the people she knew were going to try and steal from her friends. When the massive form of Graveler interposed itself between Skye and her target without even blinking Skye decided that discretion was the better part of staying in one piece and bolted back down the path, this was more her trainers style.

"Get that Pikachu!" 

"Don't let it get away. Graveler Rollout attack!" Butch yelled.

"GRAvelER!!" 'Here little Pikachu!!' "Vel gRaVELer!!" 'I'm comein' ta getchu!!'

"PIIIKKAAACHHUUUUU!!!" Which is Pikachu speak for, 'Run away!!!' of course the number of exclamation marks is up to the runners discretion.

Skye could feel the massive Graveler bearing down on her even at her full speed. It was an evolved form and she wouldn't stand a chance against it, not that she that she was going to stand around and try another attack, it had barely blinked at the first Thunderbolt. That didn't stop her trying to distract it though as she threw a massive Thundershock over her shoulder narrowly missing the large stone rolling towards her. The errant bolt did more good than she'd thought possible though as it smashed into the midst of the rest of the chasing pack and rendered everything unconscious except for Hitmontop who wobbled shakily out of the smoke and Houndour who barely shook its head at the electrical attack.

The second attack she fired off headed back towards the team leader as her aim was thrown off even more by having to dodge as Gravelar ran through the space she'd been just a moment before. Pikachu knew her attack had kind of failed as it hit nothing really important, that is until the explosion rocked the clearing throwing unconscious Pokemon around and a massive cloud of black smoke and flame into the sky.

"KApi PiCHu!" 'Cool! Bonus!' As the young Pikachu watched the mushroom cloud rise into the clear blue sky. 

Graveler looked back at the devastation and began to roll back to its trainers and find out if they were all right choosing to forget about the Pikachu for the moment. "Grav Ler, GraVELer?" 'What the #!?' Pokemon pick up language skills from their trainers and so his language was just a little coarser than the normal, a little like his hide.

/ Ranma \

Ranma paused only long enough to help the professor to his feet before running off in search of the source of that explosion.

"Ranma be careful. I don't know what could cause an explosion like that." Professor Oak yelled at the rapidly retreating form of his newest protégé.

"Don't worry about me Professor, I can take care of myself." Ranma launched herself into the air and hit the ridge pole of one of the stalls causing the whole thing to shake. She rapidly decided to switch from normal Roof-hopping to the more advanced Twinkle Toes technique, or AGATT as Ranma preferred. Why Twinkle toes? Put simply the only people able to master the required control of ki manipulation and stores were the two ancient masters of Nerima and Ranma. The name had been suggested as a joke by Nabiki when she was razzing Ranma one time and unfortunately Elder Khu Lon had overheard and said "I like it!" The name stuck and Nabiki laughed herself sick at the expressions on the faces of the two male practitioners of the technique. Ranma decided to go with the acronym he'd worked out, Anything Goes Advanced Twinkle Toes technique, as AGATT sounded much more manly.

A large number of people saw Ranma heading for the canvas on the top of her next target and gasped thinking she was going to crash through the flimsy material or squash the stall itself with the speed of her decent. Mouths opened wide to yell out a warning and stayed that way as she struck with all the force of a feather and rapidly disappeared from sight. She hit the far side of the fair in under twenty seconds, used a post sunk into the ground as a redirect and pushed off in the direction she wanted to go, once her feet touched solid ground her speed picked up even more. Ranma barely registered a yellow blur coming in the opposite direction as a Pikachu using quick attack to get extra speed but was able to scoop it up none the less as she came level with Skye; who still hadn't realized that the Graveler had turned around to revive its trainers.

"Hey Skye fancy meeting you here." Ranma said in greeting.

"Pika! PI PIKachU!" Skye pointed frantically in the direction the smoke was still rising.

"Yeah that's what I reckon too. Let's go have a look." Ranma slowed down considerably once she realized her Pikachu was fine. (For anyone wondering, no Ranma doesn't understand what Skye's saying but the body language was pretty clear.) Ranma jogged into the cloud of clearing smoke to find a large ball of stone in the middle of a crater.

"Is that what caused the explosion?" 

"PI." Skye shook her head at him and gestured to a pair of feet that withdrew quickly behind the large rock, a rock that hadn't been there earlier when they left the professors lab.

A few moments later a squat curly haired man stepped from the left side of the rock. "Prepare for trouble..." he said while striking a pose. A moment later a tall blond stepped from the opposite side of the boulder.

"and make it double!" the pose she struck was the mirror image of her partners as they both pointed at Ranma.

"Here's our mission, so you'd better listen!" they said in unison.

"To infect the world with devastation!" Cassidy's right fist slammed into the palm of his left hand.

" To blight all peoples in every nation!: Butch swept her hand out as if to encompass everything.

"To denounce the goodness of truth and love!" his voice descended to a bass rumble

"To extend our wrath to the stars above!" her voice rose half an octave as she swept her arms to point at the sky.

"Cassidy!"

"And Butch of course!"

"We're Team Rocket's 'Golden Pair', circling the earth day and night!"

"Surrender to us now or you shall surely lose the fight, fight,fight!" Butch finished off their little intro number and then a slight grinding sound could be heard as the rock turned on its axis to reveal a face only a mother could love.

"Graveler!!"

Ranma watched in stunned disbelief, 'Oh brother what a song and dance!' that was before the rock introduced itself.

"What the Fuck it that?!"

"Graveler, a rock and ground type Pokemon. It eats up to a ton of rocks a day."

"Right Skye let's deal with this sucker, do that electric thingy you did before." Luckily for Ranma she said that in Japanese and saved everyone from doing a massive face plant into the pavement. Dex on the other hand metaphorically bit holes in his tongue as he translated the command for his owner.

"Skye! Thundershock!" Dex yelled a second after Ranma's exclamation. Even though he knew it wasn't going to work, it would make Ranma reassess his options if he had to figure out how to deal with the rolling rock.

"You're kind of cute little girl. So after Graveler has finished with you I'll kiss it all better." Butch exclaimed, "Graveler Rollout attack!"

"Back off ya old hag! Ain't no way your skanky lips are gettin' anywhere near mine!" Ranma jumped aside as Graveler rolled towards her, and took note that the Thundershock had struck home, in fact it nailed the rock right between the eyes, which didn't have any effect on the Pokemon other than to temporarily blind it and give Ranma some space to add more insults.

"What kind of sick person wants to kiss a thirteen year old girl? You some kind of Pedophile?" Ranma used part of the history Dex had made up for him.

"She's kind of got a point there you know? I mean ain't she a little young for you. Mind you she is disturbingly well developed."

"Shut up you little brat! For stealing my one thousandth kiss I'll beat you. No more miss nice guy!"

"Yeah right, like you were ever a nice guy! Skye Thunderbolt!" He'd meant to say Thundershock but misinterpreted what he'd heard Dex say.

Skye blinked at the command, she didn't know that move. Oh she knew it was a more powerful version of Thundershock, but she'd only ever seen it in action from the older Pikachu in the troop. Determined to do the best that she could Skye gathered all her energy and pushed it into one attack. And watched disappointed as it still came out as a Thundershock.

"Harder Skye, push it!" Ranma watched as the Graveler stopped in its tracks once again as it tried to force its way into the constant stream of energy. Skye gritted her teeth and pushed even deeper in search of more reserves for her attack when something seemed to click between her eyes, the attack stuttered and seemed to flinch back from the massive stone creature and then it shot back as a thick torrent of energy shot forth and collided with the Graveler which fell over backwards as it couldn't stand in the stream of power. The remaining attack shot over the recumbent its form and smashed into Houndour who fell over sideways without a whimper. Hitmontop was still reeling from Skye's first attack and was in no condition to help Butch or Cassidy.

Skye, having pushed her reserves as far as they'd go simply collapsed into the ground.

"Skye has learned Thunderbolt!" Dex intoned with a sense of urgency in his voice causing Ranma to look down ready to congratulate his friend, when he saw her slumped over figure he reached down and scooped her up. "Hey Skye are you alright?"

'Pikaaa…" was all she managed to whisper before her head lolled backwards and she passed out.

"Hey kid! Don't you know anything? You must be a total amateur when it comes to Pokemon if you don't know that rock and ground types are immune to elextricity."

"Yeah so do us all a favour and hand over Rafael before things get nasty." Butch swore in the background, 'Damn he's named the Pikachu. There's no way we're gonna get out of here with any of the professors Pokemon at this rate, and there'll be hell to pay if we didn't get the plans.'

"Rafael? Um, you do know this is a girl dontcha?" Ranma asked as she tried to buy some time to think this through.

"Where I come from that's a girls name too." Cassidy said, which was total bullshit that had Butch rolling her eyes.

"I guess that explains why you got a girls name," Ranma snickered.

"Hey! I'll have you know I only got that name after my partner was assigned as Butch. I hate being called Cassidy." Years of frustration welled up as he remembered the snickers he received whenever they were at headquarters.

"You think Cassidy is bad? You want to try being a woman whose called Butch. I tell you whoever thought up these stupid aliases needs their asses kicking."

"Hate ta tell you this Butch, but they only called you that after they found out you like to kiss girls. Pity they didn't go with their first suggestion of Dyke." Cassidy smirked at his partner.

"Why you….At least that would have been appropriate to you Dick."

Ranma tuned the two out as he turned to Dex. "So if electricity don't work on that thing what will?"

"Well they're vulnerable to water, ice and fighting style attacks. Grass and steel based attacks are also very effective against rock types."

"Well I've got a water type, that Squirtle."

"That wouldn't be a good idea. We don't know how strong she is, and even if we did she may not have any water based attacks, depending on what she's been taught by her previous trainer.

"Well what am I supposed to…hey, wait a minute, fighting and ice you said?"

"Well yes, fighting you could use your Mankey, if you hadn't left your Pokeballs in Officer Jenny's office, but you don't have an ice type Pokemon."

"Nah, I don't need one. I can take that ugly thing out by myself." Butch and Cassidy stood watching the diminutive red-head as she crowed about her ability to take down their Graveler without the aid of a Pokemon and laughed.

"You, you, think…" bwa-ha-ha-…, "you can take my Graveler on bare handed? Oh-ho that's rich little girl."

"Will you stop calling me 'little girl'!" Ranma yelled.

"Ooooh! Struck a nerve did we little girl? Alright then little girl, I'll stop calling you little girl. I don't know about my partner here, he tends to call everyone little girl. Oh and by the way, Graveler Double edge, get the little girl!"

Ranma couldn't believe how fast the Pokemon went from a standing stop to full tilt as it headed in her direction with hands outstretched to strike in a double knife hand attack. Stepping back rapidly she dropped into the 'Soul of Ice' and caused her cold ki to coalesce in her fists even as she leapt back towards the descending bulk of the Graveler with a yell of "Ice punch, Stone breaker!" Both punches landed within milliseconds of each other.

The first punch froze a patch of the creatures armour about a foot and a half across, the next did exactly what it said it'd do, the brittle stone shattered into a thousand pieces. Sending roughly half of them into the elephant like hide beneath the rest showered the pig-tailed martial artist. The force of the second blow sent the rock flying backwards between the two criminals who had gone back to arguing over the relative anguish of being known as Butch or Cassidy. Neither of them believed what they'd just seen as their heads snapped around to follow the flightpath of the normally groundbased Pokemon, then they snapped back around to look at the nonchalant expression on the young girls face as she buffed her fist on her silk shirt and whistled innocently.

They looked at each other before reaching for their Pokeballs and recovering all their unconscious Pokemon, before reaching down and pushing buttons on the side of their boots. Little wheels popped out of the base as they turned into inline skates and began to pelt away at high speed to get away from the monster.

"Aaaaah! Skate away!!!!" Which is human for I ain't sticking around with someone who can punch out a Graveler. The number of exclamation marks is still up to the person saying it.

The appearance of the skates was an epiphany for Ranma as he suddenly realized why he'd been having a severe case of dejavu since she'd discovered the weird pair. The following course of action was decided by her past history with the 'Golden Pair' as she dropped a massive Mouko Takabisha on their retreating forms. She barely heard them yelling.

"Looks like Team Rocket's blasting off today!!" As they disappeared into the distant sky.

Ranma looked around at the damage and decided it was just like home, except the crazies didn't come after her with martial arts but with big ass Pokemon. Then slumped down feeling dejected. The whole point on this new world was to let his Pokemon do the battling for him if what Dex told him was true, and he'd just stepped in and solved all his problems with his fists.

"Why so glum Ranma?" The Pokedex asked as Ranma went to check on Skye, she gave a little sigh of relief when she found that the Pikachu had only passed out.

"You figure it out Dex, you're so smart!"

"Hmm, I'm not sure, but would it have something to do with not using Pokemon in that battle."

"How'd ya figure that out?"

"Simple really, you take great pride in your own physical skills and it must have been a blow to your ego when I told you that Pokemon do the fighting here. Thus when you gave in to the way things are, you decided that you couldn't use your own skills in battle. Which is silly if you ask me. Certainly it's true that if anyone challenges you it will more than likely be to a Pokemon battle, but when it comes to something like Team Rocket who are known hardened criminals, then you do whatever you can to make them suffer. Who knows, if they suffer enough they may even turn back to decent human beings."

"You think so? I don't know as much, I think that Azusa Shiratori guy's too much of a kleptomaniac to do anything else with his life. As for Mikado Sanzenin the next time I see that bitch I'm gonna teach her not to mess with me like that again."

"Ranma?"

"Yeah?"

"Would you mind telling me how you knew their real names, I'm just accessing the police files on Team Rocket and they only speculate that the two you just named and the team you just beat are one and the same."

"You mean I was right? Oh goody, just what I needed those two freaks are on the same planet as me. That's gotta be the most messed up shit I've ever seen!"

"What's that?"

"Well on my world they're different physically, I mean totally different. For one thing they're the wrong gender here and for another I gotta say that Azusa guy was Uuuugly. Guy musta fallen outta the ugly tree and hit most of the branches on the way down. Then again, I suppose it was different for him. A cute girl steals something and people make excuses or are more forgiving. A guy steals something from ya you're more likely to try and beat his head in. That's explain the shape of his head."

"You're serious?"

"Yeah. Wish I weren't but the skates were kind of the clincher. They had me worried with calling themselves the 'Golden Pair'. Damn that's got me freaked now, if they're here, then that means the others could be here. An if they're all as different as that then I won't recognize them until it's too late."

"Give me a list of names later and I'll see what I can find. For the moment you need to deal with these people coming up behind you.

/ To be continued \

Author's notes:- Sorry for the delay, and the small size of the chapter but for some reason the introduction of 'Butch and Cassidy' into the fanfic didn't gel the first number of times I tried to write this. The size is due to the fact that this is a good point to stop, and I've gotta go to work now anyway.

So like I always say, REVIEW, please. All comments are welcome as long as they pertain to the fanfiction and not my supposed parentage. Lol.

Till next time!


	5. Chapter 5

Who's a Pokémon Master?

Chapter 5

Authors notes:- Well I suppose I've got some explaining to do where the long absence is concerned. Real life, it sucks. My computer got struck by lightning in a storm, no not literally but a power pole did and it sent a power spike through my computer, don't know the damage yet since I don't have the money to even get a tech to look at it. On top of that there are family problems that I just can't escape and dealing with them is draining. Another, and the only really self inflicted reason I haven't been updating for quite a while is that I simply burned myself out with too many stories. Have I fixed any of these, well no, not really so I'm unsure if this is a one off and then a big gap or if I'll work to finish one story before moving on. Don't expect an update soon, just be glad if you get one, lol.

/ Professor Oak's research centre \

"I hope that answers all your questions," the professor looked at his house-guest with thinly veiled hope.

"Snerk, er, ah yes," Ranma blinked a few times as her eyes refocused on her supposed idol. Looking around she noticed how late it was and decided it was probably time to beat a hasty retreat before the suddenly suspicious loking professor asked her any questions about what he'd told her. "Er, Professor Oak, I'd like to make an early start in the morning."

"Ah yes, then I suppose I'd better show you to your room." He quickly rose from the seat at the kitchen table and headed for the door.

"Can I say good-night to Skye first?"

"Of course you can. It's very important to bond with your new Pokemon as soon as possible." He watched as the young girl headed for the first aid station and her Pikachu while he waited for her to return.

Ranma turned the corner and entered the room where Skye was attached to a piece of machinery that wouldn't look out of place in a hospital. Taking note that the professor hadn't followed her she spoke to Dex. "Hey Dex?"

"Yes Ranma," the small black box spoke quietly so as not to draw any attention if the professor had keen hearing.

"So what was all that the Prof. was talking about?"

"Weren't you listening? I could have sworn you were paying close attention." The machine asked in a snide tone.

"Nah, that's a technique I learned when I went to school to stop me from getting detention for sleeping in class."

"But you were saying 'uh-huh' and such when it was appropriate."

"Yeah, and? I taught myself to respond to the questioning tone of voice like that so it looks like I'm paying attention."

"But the professor just spoke to you for four hours straight about what he was doing to Skye and why."

"Er, really?" Ranma sweat-dropped at the thought, 'No wonder the professor looked panicked and worn out. Probably thought I was just gonna say uh-huh again and ask him to continue.' The problem was that he'd really needed the sleep.

"Maybe I should give you a run down on what he told you?"

"Yeah probably a good idea."

"The machine Skye is hooked up to is based on the defibrillator used in hospitals to resuscitate heart attack victims. Basically it administers a low energy charge that interrupts the electrical impulses causing the heart-attack. You understand so far?"

"Yeah, got it. Where do Pokemon fit into this?"

"Alright, first of all electric type Pokemon have a few things in common. The important one is that they store energy like a battery, and just like a battery they leak electrical charge constantly. The amount of leakage varies across species, if you check the dial on the machine here you'll find several other modes to cover them. Pikachu normally leak electricity at one hundred and fifty joules."

"Okay how's that fit in with recharging them?"

"Another characteristic they share with batteries, or at least the rechargeable type is that if you feed current into them at above their normal drain they gain charge, hence them being called rechargeable."

"Right, I got it." Ranma grinned as he pondered the information he'd been given. "Hey Dex, I'm gonna get to bed now, we can cover the rest of the information sometime tomorrow. I'll just say good-night to Skye before Professor Oak comes looking for me," she walked over to the examination table and looked down at her currently sleeping Pikachu. Skye's instincts must have been pretty good because as soon as Ranma was within two feet of her, her eyes popped open and regarded her trainer with a renewed sparkle. "Heya Skye. How you doing?"

"Pika!" The yellow rodent made to get up but Ranma waved her back down.

"You stay there Skye, you aren't fully recovered yet and I don't want you to get hurt anymore."

"Pi Pika." 'Alright' she lay her head back down on her front paws and watched the person who was becoming a special person to her.

"I just wanted to come in and say good-night," It still freaked Ranma a little to speak in Japanese and hear the words translated almost as soon as she spoke them into English, "Now you get some sleep, we'll be leaving early tomorrow." Ranma turned to leave when she heard a faint murmur of assent from the Pikachu. She was smiling when she left the room and noted that the automatic lights had dimmed the room. "Sleep well little warrior," she murmured as she watched her friend settle for the night.

"All finished Ranma?" Ranma almost jumped through the roof as the man spoke behind her.

"Uh! Yes Professor. Could you tell me how long she'll need to be on there?"

"Well taking into account how drained she was when you brought her in I'd say another five or so hours should see her right."

"Um, good. I just wanted to say thank-you for all your help. I'll be leaving really early tomorrow morning to get a good start on the day so I probably won't see you in the morning."

"Think nothing of it, as your mentor it is my place to answer all your questions and render any aid I'm able to. If I don't see you tomorrow I wish you luck on your Poke-journey."

"Thanks!" Giving into the urge she hugged the man again, it proved easier than it ever had to do the star-struck fan girl since she actually liked the elder man. He was like Tofu-sensei in so many ways. Not that he was perfect or anything. Earlier he'd voiced his disbelief in her ability to take on a Graveler, not that Officer Jenny had believed her either until she'd shown them the stone-breaker technique she'd used, sans the ice fist. She didn't want to give away too many secrets this early in her career.

"You're welcome. The guest room is up these stairs and it's the third door on the right. Good night Ranma."

"G'night." Ranma bounded up the stairs feeling renewed by the four hour long kip she'd just taken. She'd still try to sleep since she'd learned while on the road to sleep and eat when the opportunity presented itself but it would probably prove to be futile since she needed so little sleep nowadays.

The room she entered was plain, or rather neutral in its furnishings. The décor was all pastel shades of green and was very restful looking. Ranma didn't bother to get undressed since she only intended to lie on top of the comforter and meditate on what had happened since coming to this new world. A few minutes later her breathing deepened and she appeared to be asleep, which was fairly accurate since she'd been more drained by her activities earlier than she'd been willing to let on. Just after the incident with Team Rocket she'd been prepared to press on with her journey but the professor insisted she return with him and get a good nights sleep. She'd only acquiesced after he'd brought Skye currently depleted state up in the argument.

/ \

A few short hours later a slight pinging sound drew Ranma's attention and woke her from a peaceful sleep. Looking around groggily she noted that Dex seemed to be the originator of the infernal noise.

"What time is it Dex?"

"Just after four in the morning. It has been five and a half hours since you went to sleep and I do believe that Skye should be fully recharged now."

"I wasn't sleeping."

"Ranma, did you know you snore?" the handheld computer asked innocently.

"I do not! You take that back!" The Pokedex interrupted her tirade with a recording of her snoring, and it proved that she was nearly as bad as her father. "That ain't me, and you can't prove it's me." She yelled indignantly.

"Well I probably could but I think you'd rather go and get Skye so that we can leave."

"Er, right." Ranma leapt from the bed and dashed from the room in her haste to be reunited with the Pikachu. A second later she raced back in and picked a snoring Dex up with an indignant, "That's not funny!"

"Says you."

Ranma sniffed lightly as she turned off the light and closed the door. A short time later she opened the door of the infirmary and walked over to Skye who once again proved to be aware of her surroundings as she looked up at her trainer.

"Hey Skye you ready to go?"

"Pika!" Skye nodded in assent, and if the grin on her face was any indication she was ready to take on the world, 'Guess I'll have to watch her closely, don't want to end up with too many Pokemon the second day I'm a trainer,' Ranma thought as she removed the weird looking headpiece the professor had placed on the rodent the day before. Pausing for a moment to scratch between Skye's long ears she noted the mouses eyes closed in bliss.

"ka Chhuuuu-uuuuU!!" Which didn't really translate but roughly meant, 'Yeah, right there, oh yeah you just keep doing that!' and a number of unvoiced threats of what would happen if Ranma stopped anytime soon. The little Pikachu's foot began to twitch as Ranma hit a particularly sensitive spot. One thing Skye had missed about being part of the troupe was that there was no one to groom the hard or impossible to reach places. Her fur had begun to itch sometime yesterday and she hadn't been able to reach it to scratch it, a sensation that had been driving her slowly bonkers since.

"I guess you like that huh?' Ranma asked with a pleased expression on her face. She'd never had a pet of any description, not that she thought of Skye as a pet, but she could definitely see why some people kept animals. It was pleasant to have something that felt affection for you for doing something as simple as scratching them behind the ears. Ranma yelped and drew her hand from Skye's fur as she looked between the offended hand and her Pikachu in shock.

"What was that?" as she shook her suddenly numb fingers. Skye looked up with a silent apology in her eyes.

"That is the Pikachu's natural Static, it has been known to paralyse an opponent or at the least limit its mobility." Skye sat and watched her trainer shaking the feeling back into her nerveless fingers and

"Hey, don't sweat it Skye. It wasn't your fault." Ranma shook her hands and started clenching them as feeling returned slowly. "I suppose we'd better get going if we want to get anywher today." Ranma resettled the straps on the large pack she was carrying as she walked towards the door.

/ \

They'd been walking for nearly an hour and Ranma had to admit she was confused and getting irritated because of it. She stopped moving and listened intently for the fifth time but the sound had stopped again.

"Is there a problem Ranma?"

"Not sure. I keep hearing something strange but every time we stop the sound stops too. It's like we're bein' followed or something." The red-head frowned as she peered suspiciously into the undergrowth, her ki senses stretched to the maximum. There were plenty of ki sources around but none of them seemed to match what was making the sound, or seemed to be interested in them for that matter.

"I shall run a scan and see if there are any anomalous sounds in our vicinity." Its owner just glared at its inert surface since she really couldn't figure out how to insult it for telling her it doubted her abilities. "Ah…."

"Ah? What?"

"I believe I have ascertained the cause of your discomfort. Skye could you please raise one of your paws."

"Pi." They could hardly see the yellow rodent in the pre-dawn darkness but Ranma definitely saw the sparks of light as electricity arced from the tips of her claws and she also heard the sound that'd been driving her nuts for a while.

"What's wrong with her?"

"Nothing is wrong with Skye. Just let me explain what I suspect. A number of years ago a man named Professor Rowan worked with Professor Oak on a joint project. They developed the system that Skye used last night to recharge. The research is ongoing at this stage so some things haven't been discovered yet. One of those things is a process called over-charging."

"Over charging…" Ranma rolled the unfamiliar term around for a few moments to familiarize herself with it. "I can guess what that means but what does it mean in terms of my Pikachu and why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Put simply I forgot, okay." If the portable device could have blushed Ranma had a feeling that now was the time as she looked at it with incredulous eyes.

"Er, how does a computer forget something like that?"

"Like I said its new technology here but 'when' I come from there are safety guidelines in place."

"Safety guidelines?" Ranma asked quietly as a threatening undertone entered her voice.

"Yes, over-charging was discovered by accident and later revealed in the autobiography of a Pokemon Master who chose to reveal some of the secrets of his success at such a young age. Others soon followed suit and over-charged their Pokemon thus increasing the power of their pokemon's electrical attacks. After a number of years some people noted that their Pokemon became sick and listless, then Pokemon started dieing, sometimes centuries before they should have. The Poke-centres issued a ban on the technique but people can be unscrupulous when it comes to winning. Skye was only over-charged a little so there'll be no ill side effects, it's only dangerous if repeatedly used. I missed it because I assumed that they had the same guidelines and rules for over-charging here."

"Alright we'll drop it for now but we ain't ever gonna let that happen again you hear?"

"I couldn't agree more. Now as for the noise you heard she'll be doing that until her charge returns to normal. If it is annoying you, you might want to let her ride on your shoulder."

"Maybe but we ain't gonna get too far if she paralyses me."

"It shouldn't happen if she doesn't touch your skin."

"Right," Ranma tried not to sound too sceptical, "Hey Skye? You wanna ride for a while?" His answer came as a grin in the darkness, 'Now that's just plain creepy,' she thought as she watched electrical discharges roll down the Pikachu's incisors and arc to her lower teeth. 'Cool but creepy'

For answer she leapt up to perch on Ranma's shoulder.

"Perfect." Dex said as it took a number of pictures. The first was of Skye landing and the last in the sequence showed the two of their shocked faces as they stared at each other. Ranma's hair had almost seemed to attack the little rodent the moment she'd landed and now they were connected by a curtain of bright coppery red hair.

"Dex!" Ranma yelled in outrage.

"Yes?" the word had definite overtones of plum.

"That ain't funny!"

"You know something? You really need to lighten up Ranma, have a little fun. Oh alright buzz kill," Dex responded to the glare his owner was sending his way, "To bring her charge down quickly to where it doesn't do that anymore just have her use Thunderwave a few times and she won't be overcharged anymore."

"Okay, you heard the…" Ranma trailed off uncertain how to finish the sentence before restarting, "You heard Dex…."

"I wouldn't do that with Skye still on your shoulder Ranma. I know we're not in a hurry but if she paralyses you we'll be here for hours."

"Uh, sure. Why don't you go and scare up some breakfast Skye?"

"PikachU!" the small rodent said as she leapt down to the ground causing a small flash of light and accompanying crack of lightning before she headed into the bushes. Ranma watched as a final flash of yellow fur could be seen in the shadowy underbrush as she continued walking along the forest trail. A tenuous link between the two allowed her to follow her friend from a distance and reassure herself that there wouldn't be a repeat of the incident yesterday.

/ Skye \

Skye pushed through the last of the bushes that edged the path into the forests cool interior in search of a snack. Truth be told she didn't really need anything to eat but certain instincts were hard to suppress, especially when you were only just getting used to the concept of being with a trainer who would ensure you were fed and cared for, at least they would if they were any good.

The peace and quiet in the forest was a balm to her nerves, after the action of yesterday. It didn't seem real to her in so many ways. Sure she'd always craved excitement and change but the previous day had been total overkill in her opinion, not that it hadn't been a lot of fun. She'd gotten to see her trainer in action again and even learned a few things such as never attack a mobile rock since her electric attacks didn't work so well. The problem was that she felt weak because of it, and one thing she wouldn't let herself feel was weak. A new fire was lit inside Skye as she considered what she wanted to do, she wanted to get stronger, to be stronger and if possible be the strongest.

Wandering through the forest and not paying attention was not normally considered a smart thing for a Pokémon to do, it was downright dangerous in fact. She'd already had a taste of that the previous day, but it was hard to be wary when she could 'feel' her trainer even at a distance, she felt a little like she had earlier when he'd been scratching her ears. She was so busy focusing on her thoughts of being the strongest and also analysing her feelings where Ranma were concerned that she almost missed the sense that she was being watched.

Looking around Skye discovered that she'd entered a small clearing, by the looks of it one of the forests gigantic trees had died and finally fallen thus creating a gap in the forests canopy to let in light. It couldn't have happened too long ago either since there wasn't much sign of new growth to take advantage of this opportunity. Apart from the fallen giant there didn't seem to be anything else of note in the clearing, but that sense of being watched only got stronger as she looked around more intently. Peering through the undergrowth before switching to the trees surrounding the clearing she failed to note anything that would worry her. Well other than the fact that she seemed to be the only Pokémon around at the moment, which was unusual in itself, normally this place would be used by all kinds of Pokémon.

Having checked her surroundings she turned her attention to the fallen tree itself and began to study it closely, walking around the perimeter of the clearing to be able to view both sides of it in case there was a dangerous Pokémon on the opposite side of the trunk. It was then that the Pikachu's sensitive ears twitched, and then again as they sought the source of the sound. It'd sounded a lot like giggling and it was definitely coming from near the tree. More determined than ever Skye tilted her head as she searched for some sign of whatever it was that was watching her, she knew for a fact it was now since its giggling had only gotten louder. Tilting her head back to the right she thought she saw a distortion in the air, tilting back the other way and she was sure of it, there was indeed a strange shimmering shape and it was sitting upon the tip of one of the trees exposed roots as it thrust into the sky some twenty feet. Skye was truly wary now since she couldn't truly defend herself against something she couldn't see and she was getting agitated.

(Relax youngling, I mean you no harm) the soft melodious words seemed to hang in the air all around her, it took a moment to realise she hadn't actually heard them at all, but she had, it was all so very confusing.

"Iika?!" 'Who?!" Skye tried to sound like the voice didn't startle her but the high pitched squeak in her voice gave her away.

(There is no need for fear) the voice reiterated the initial message. Skye got the feeling that the 'voice' was female in origin though she couldn't realy tell how she knew that. The distortion in the air became much easier to see as she approached closer and she could almost make out the shape of the hidden Pokémon, for that was what it must be. She'd just never heard of a Pokémon with the ability to make itself invisible before. (As I said I seek only peace) The suns rays glittered off of the glass like head of the hidden Pokémon as it tilted slightly.

"Pi, KAchu PikA," 'Then show yourself' Skye challenged, it was easy to distrust a voice in your head. Powering up her cheek pouches Skye took careful aim, if she didn't get it in the first move then she'd likely lose track of it and be vulnerable to a counterattack.

(Alright, but please don't attack me) The distortion in the air became stronger as it seemed to become like heat haze on a hot day, she'd noted before how the effect often tricked the eyes making her think that something was closer or further away than she thought. She'd never realized that heat haze could also hide something. (It isn't heat haze, it's called Blend, and it is one of my powers) when the shimmering got even stronger and Skye could see flashes of pink that became larger until whole sections of the Pokémon were revealed and it was…was…like nothing she'd ever seen before, which wasn't really surprising.

It was actually smaller than she was, but the sense of power just washed off of the little creature as it regarded her with startling blue eyes. If she had to hazard a guess she'd have to say it was a mouse type but she wasn't sure, it could also have been a cat type. One thing she was sure of though was that it wasn't anything she'd ever seen before and she'd certainly never seen a Pokémon that could hover like that. Certainly there'd been enough flying types around as she grew up but this was a first for her on so many levels.

Skye didn't release her power levels even though she could now see what had been watching her, the truth was even though it protested peaceful intentions there was the fact that what you didn't know could get you killed. It was better to be wary than sorry, "PiKAchU!" she introduced herself.

(I am pleased to meet you Skye, I am "Mew") Skye blinked, it was the first sound the other pokemon had made other than the giggling.

"Pi-iI kA CHuuu?" ' What are you?'

(I told you, I am "Mew") the Pokémon repeated patiently, Skye had to admit that now that she could see this Mew that she was feeling much better, in fact she was feeling quite exuberantly bubbly and playful, enough that she wondered if that were her of the pink Pokémon she'd found.

She was just about to repeat her question when she was interrupted by Mew, (You do know that you don't have to speak your questions. Just think them and I will hear you)

'Really?' Skye thought sceptically.

(Yes really, I'm a psychic type Pokémon)

"CHUUUuuuuuu!" Skye whistled in an approximation of, 'Whoooooa!' She'd never actually met a psychic type before so wasn't quite sure what that meant but it was neat to be able to think her questions instead of speak them.

(Indeed, so what would you like to know little one)

'Little one? I'm bigger than you!'

(I apologise, I was not referring to your size, but to your age. I am much older than you are)

'Oh. Um, can I ask something?'

(You just did, but you may ask another question) the Pokémon answered with a cheeky smile.

'Um, what are you doing here?' Skye asked even knowing it was an impertinent question, she really didn't have a right to ask that, and the answer might be something as prosaic as this being the place the Mew lived. She was sorry she'd asked a moment later as she watched the cheery looking Pokémon become dejected as its shoulders slumped.

(I travel the world seeking others of my kind)

'Oh,' it was all Skye could think to answer at the sad tone of the thought.

(I have searched for centuries, but have not found any signs. I fear that I am the last of my kind. I am "Mew" and since there are no others like me I have no need of another name) Mew sighed mournfully before it seemed to pull itself together again, it wasn't as cheery as it looked before but then it wasn't as sad as it was just a moment ago. (Enough! I will not feel sorrow for myself, I will continue to search in the hope that one day I will find what I seek)

Skye watched Mew with shimmering eyes as her natural empathy meshed with the emotions emanating from the pink Pokémon.

'I wish I could help you,' Skye thought softly.

(I thank you Skye but you have your own journey to make and your human needs you. Speaking of which, I believe he is on his way. My, he's quite fast isn't he?)

'His name's Ranma, and he's the most special human I've ever met' though she had to admit grudgingly that she hadn't met all that many humans.

(I'm sorry, I must leave now. I cannot allow a human to see me or they will hunt me down and try to capture me) Skye watched as the Mew began to float away.

'Please wait, just meet him, he won't hurt you.'

Mew snorted in disbelief, she had much more knowledge of humans and what they were like, (I know you believe that to be true, but I know better little one. Maybe one day we shall meet again, but for now I bid you good-day) The Mew left a slight trail of sparkles as it floated for the far side of the clearing just as Ranma cleared the bushes opposite the Mew.

/ Ranma \

"Alright Dex, as soon as Skye returns we'll make a move. So what do you suggest?"

"Well Ranma, at this point I think it would be wise to head North directly from here that way we'll avoid all the trainers that'll challenge you."

"Uh? I thought I wanted to be challenged," Ranma said thoroughly puzzled.

"Ordinarily that would be so, but lets face facts you are hardly ready to face a skilled opponent now are you?"

"Hey! I can handle anything!"

"Really, so then that being the case, what would you do if Skye was facing an Onix?"

"Um, well I'd have her do that lightning bolt thing she did yesterday," Ranma stated, it was the most powerful attack that she could do at the moment, Dex had already told him that.

"And Onix has just crushed Skye under his body," Dex said.

"Huh, but why?"

"Onix is a rock type Pokémon, and as you saw yesterday electric type attacks have little to no effect on rock types. It would take the full power of Raichu, that's Pikachu's evolved form, to even make an Onix tingle. Of course there are ways to get around that, but for the most part Skye couldn't battle a rock type as she is. There are attacks that she can perform that work much better, would you care to name them for me? How about some of the attacks for your other Pokémon?"

Ranma was now completely flummoxed, this wasn't new territory for him but he had to admit that Dex had a point. He was a master of improvisation in his own fights and could usually snatch a win out of the direst situation but that was because he knew what he could do intimately. His pokemon were a whole new kettle of fish, he really didn't know what they could already do, let alone what they were capable of learning. Deep down she knew that the little computer was right, that wasn't going to stop her from pouting about it though.

"Are you pouting?" the little black box asked curiously.

"Hey, I'm a guy! Guys don't pout!"

"Well I hate to point this out but at the moment you're a girl and I hear it is appropriate for a girl to pout when proved wrong," Dex's view was cut off after that as Ranma flipped the case closed. Though that wasn't the only way for him to sense things, for example the fact that Ranma kept shifting his grip, "Um, Ranma? What are you doing?"

"Tryin' ta figure out how far I ca throw ya'. I'm sure Professor Oak'd be more than happy to get me a replacement when I tell him the big bad pokemon ate mine," the red-head growled.

"Now, now there's no need to be hasty. If you throw me there's no telling how long it'll take you to find me again when you calm down…" he trailed off after he figured that Ranma was no longer listening to him, "What's wrong Ranma?"

"Dunno, I just felt a disturbance in the Wa," Ranma frowned as she stepped away from the paved road and headed into the forest.

"Wa?"

"Yeah, it's a, well um, it's kind'a hard to explain. You know how some places just have a feel to them?"

"No, I believe we've covered this Ranma. I don't have 'feelings' because I'm a machine."

"Uh, right. Then take my word for it, some places just feel a certain way."

"And something just disturbed the Wa of this place?"

"Yeah, you got it," Ranma stopped talking for a moment as he began walking faster, a sudden feeling from his link to Skye had him moving even quicker towards the centre of the disturbance.

"I'll run a scan and see if there's anything ahead," a short pulse of sound was emitted by the pokedex that sounded like a speeded up version of a sonar, it started quietly and got louder as more pulses of sound were emitted before they began to quieten down again, the sequence repeated three more times as Ranma hurried through the thick underbrush.

"Ranma there is a very powerful emanation in close proximity to Skye, it's about a mile ahead," Dex subsided as Ranma went from a rapid jog to a dead run, where the underbrush was too thick he'd go over as he flashed past tree trunks thicker than his arm-span with barely a thought to the consequences if he missed.

Ranma went pale as he considered what might be happening ahead of him with his new found friend, he didn't want to lose anyone who mattered to him especially not since she was one of the better people he'd met in recent history.

"Can…You…Tell…Me…Any…thing...about…it?" he managed to ask between steps.

"Not really Ranma, but I know I've felt it before, or something very similar. From the power levels I'd have to say it's one of the legendary Pokémon," Dex stopped speaking as the trees began to thin out ahead of them and he didn't want to distract the boy if he needed to act quickly.

The first thing Ranma saw when the trees opened up was the bright yellow form of Skye sitting on her haunches as she watched something.

"Pika PiIiii!" as she pointed at what had her captivated. Ranma tried to figure out what she was talking about but as he looked around he came eye to eye with a pair of intense blue eyes, blinking quickly as she tried to focus on the eyes set in a pink face she took a step back and began to notice certain characteristics.

"Aaaaaaah1 C-C-Caaaat!" The diminutive red-head scrambled backwards trying to escape the hellish flying cat. Ranma paused at the thought of flying cats and shivered in dread, never once taking her eyes off of it she noticed that it only had a slight resesmblance to a cat, in the same way that a Pikachu only superficially looked like a mouse. The creature took a good look at Ranma and then with a slight giggle it started to vanish until only the eyes were visible and it began to move away.

"Mew!" The eyes closed and Ranma felt the massive energy field that had scared her recede into the distance before completely vanishing.

"What the hell was that Dex?" Ranma asked in a slightly more high pitched voice, the adrenaline had yet to leave her system and it was affecting her more than she'd like to admit.

"That was Mew, a rather playful Pokemon that is rarely seen. It is one of the legendary Pokemon that are believed to be extinct."

"Hate to break it to ya but I think the rumours of its extinction are greatly exaggerated."

"I believe you're correct Ranma. Also, if I have the timeline correct then it will only be a couple of years before Team Rocket manages to genetically create a new Pokemon from fossilised remains of Mew. They mistakenly call it MewTwo."

"Mistakenly?"

"Yes. The one you just saw was a female, whereas the one that they 'create' will be male. The scientists of my time were unsure but they believed that there are as many as three female Mew alive at present. By time I was built there was an entire colony of them in a preserve that no one dared to trespass upon, no matter how good a trainer they thought they were."

"Cool. So are there many of these legendary Pokemon?"

"There are quite a few, but they are mostly unsubstantiated sightings and no one really knows how many there are. If truth were told, even in my time we haven't seen all the species of Pokemon that are out there."

Ranma got a thoughtful look on her face for a moment as she contemplated the possibilities and slowly began shaking her head, 'Nah, got enough on my plate without chasing after daydreams. Focus on what's in front of me and if I come across them then that's fine.'

"Right, lets get moving Dex!" Ranma yelled s she headed off into the bush.

"Speak for yourself, you're the one with the legs."

/ To be continued \

Authors notes:- Just a quick note explaining the need to have Mew in the chapter, well it could have been any of the legendaries, but I like Mew so there. Ash in the original Pokemon cartoon gets to see Ho-oh on the first day of his trip so I thought that Ranma should see one as well. Next chapter a little training, a little mayhem and some more of Ranma's Pokemon make their debut as they're fully recovered from meeting Skye.

I can't believe it took over six months to write a hundred words and proof-read this chapter. It won't take that long for the next one, promise.


End file.
